The Story Begins
by Shy12
Summary: I wrote this story ten years ago in 2000 just for something fun to do. It's about three girls who get caught up in the weird world of GW. It's not to be taken seriously, just a fun spoof with hidden jokes for those who watched the show as much as I did!
1. Chapter 1 Meeting

**Gundam Wing - The Story Begins…**

**This is the story of three regular girls thrown into a world complete with the five guys of Gundam. Could you survive?**

**1) ****Meeting**

The year is 2000 A.D. The place is some neutral zone in Europe. The school is called the Medora International University for Students with Special Talents and it's currently spring semester. M.I.U. is where college age students from all over the world come to spend the next four years being educated in life and other things. M.I.U. is where students must decide their future and where dreams and goals are made. M.I.U. is where students…

"Par-tay! Party over here! We're usin' Quatre's radio!" Duo Maxwell ran up and down the campus giving high 5's to everyone he saw.

Quatre Raberba Winner, sitting off by himself, covered his face with his hands. "Why me?" he asked.

Meanwhile on the other side of the campus, 18-year-old Cheyenne Weatherstone and her best friend, 18-year-old Kaila Shields, calmly walked up to the school wearing matching school uniforms. Cheyenne's thick shoulder-length hair was the color of sunset-and her eyes were an eye-catching blue-gray, while Kaila's long locks were dark blue-violet and her eyes shown a pretty light brown. Both had beautiful brown skin though Cheyenne's was the color of mahogany while Kaila's was nutmeg.

"I know this school is supposed to be the chance of a lifetime and that only the gifted are chosen to come here, but," Kaila sighed and looked at her school uniform: it was a white blouse with a red bow around the collar and a red vest over that, then a blue skirt, gray knee socks and black heels. "These colors do nothing for me," she finished.

Cheyenne rolled her eyes good-naturedly at her friend and smiled. "You've got to take the bad with the good, I guess," she laughed.

Kaila smirked and held her school folder behind her head, squinting one eye shut as she looked around her. "At least the scenery is nice," she murmured.

"I take it you're not referring to the natural beauty around us, eh?" Cheyenne grinned.

"Nope," Kaila agreed, looking around at the various young men walking the campus. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the song _Rhythm Generation_ began to play. "Where's that music coming from?" she asked, looking around.

Cheyenne looked around too and saw a cute blonde guy with a baby face playing the music on his radio. Several kids surrounded him dancing to the song. "It must be him over there," she told her, "the blonde."

"Ooh, c'mon! Let's join the party!" Kaila ran off toward the dancing kids.

Cheyenne raced after her. "Hey, wait up!" she called, but Kaila as usual had heard music and was off and running. For a moment, Cheyenne lost track of her friend and then someone suddenly appeared in front of her and knocked her off her feet. "Oof!" she grunted as her school folder went flying and she landed flat on her rear.

"Oh, excuse me," a soft voice said. Cheyenne looked up and found she was looking in eyes a pretty shade of green. "Are you okay?" the guy asked, holding out his hand to help her up.

"Oh…um…I'm all right," she told him as she leapt up from the ground herself. "I'm okay, see?"

The boy's serious face softened a little as he handed Cheyenne her folder. "Good. Here's your folder, then." He abruptly walked off towards the school.

Cheyenne watched him for a couple minutes with her heart fluttering and then she grinned like a fool. "He's sooooo cute!" she screamed, throwing her folder up in the air and jumping up as well. "I totally think he likes me!" Several students passing by assumed that she was crazy.

"Hey! Woman!" Cheyenne turned around slowly to face a Chinese guy with his hair slicked straight back into a short ponytail. He was holding her folder in his hand. "Next time pay attention to where you throw things, huh!" he snapped, throwing the folder back at her.

Cheyenne caught it instinctively and glared at his disappearing figure. "Geez, what's his problem?"

Kaila came up behind her suddenly and tugged at her hand, pulling her along. "C'mon girl, we're gonna be late for our first class," she said. "You shouldn't have missed that little party, though. It was fun!"

Cheyenne only smiled.

"Uh oh, what are you so smiley about, huh?" Kaila wanted to know.

"Kaila, I just met the cutest guy! He helped me up off the ground and-"

"Off the _ground_?"

"Don't ask," Cheyenne shrugged. "Anyway, he has the greatest hair! It's all spiky and sexy!" she bubbled happily.

Kaila raised an eyebrow and looked around. "You mean him?" she asked, pointing in the direction of the Chinese guy who was still walking off.

Cheyenne looked up in the same direction and saw the brown haired guy leaning against a wall instead. "Yeah, yeah! Him! You should see his eyes! They're beautiful!"

"Um, if you say so," Kaila shrugged, unimpressed. "Now come on already. I have no idea where my first class is, do you?"

"Ummm, eh?" Cheyenne shrugged.

Kaila sweat-dropped and pulled her friend along.

**(*)**

"I met the funniest guy in my class today, Shy. You should see his hair, too, it's in this looong braid. I actually thought he was a girl at first, but anyway, he's hilarious. He kinda reminds me of you and…yo, Shy, are you listening to me?" Kaila asked as she and Cheyenne stood in the café lunch line around two in the afternoon.

"Mm?" Cheyenne asked, searching the café for any sign of the cute guy with the spiky hair.

Kaila sighed and shook her head. "Never mind…" She grabbed her lunch tray and glanced around the room for a place to sit, finally spotting the Chinese guy at a table with some other guys. "Hey Shy, isn't that the guy you have a crush on?" she asked.

Cheyenne got her tray and looked in the direction that Kaila was talking about. All of sudden, the _White Reflection_ song began to play somewhere in the background and Cheyenne saw that the blonde guy from before was at the table WITH the spiky brown haired guy! "Yes, yes! That's him!" she giggled happily.

"Hmm…" Kaila's eyes gazed expertly at the table. "All of them are cute, too. It's true what they say, cute guys travel in packs," she told her. Cheyenne nodded wisely and Kaila began to walk towards them. "Well, let's go sit with them, then," Kaila added.

Cheyenne's eyes widened. "Are you crazy? I can't sit with him! I…I wouldn't know what to say! I-I-"

"I'm gooooing," Kaila laughed, assuming that Cheyenne would trail along behind her. Cheyenne only heaved a large sigh.

Kaila walked up to the table just as the song ended. "Good, now y'all can hear me," she told them. All five guys looked up at her in surprise.

"Who are you?" the blonde one wanted to know.

"My name's Kaila. Me and my friend were wondering if we could sit with you guys, today."

"Why would you sit here when there are so many other tables that are empty?" the Chinese guy asked.

Kaila narrowed her eyes at him. '_This__ is the one Cheyenne's so ga-ga about? His eyes don't seem to be any particularly pretty shade to me. They just look black._'

"Why are you staring at me like that?" the Chinese guy snapped.

Kaila rolled her eyes. "Don't go feeling all special, okay?" She turned to the braided guy. "You're Duo…right?"

"Yeah," Duo answered between bites of his food. "I remember you, Kaila. Come on and sit by me."

"Thanks," Kaila grinned and sat down.

The blonde one introduced everybody. "I'm Quatre, and this is Wufei. And that's Trowa and Heero," he explained. Kaila studied all of the guys in turn. Quatre was cute in a baby face way and had blonde hair, big blue-green eyes and looked like a basic prep. The Chinese guy, Wufei, was also pretty cute but his attitude already got on her nerves. Duo was friendly-looking with his gorgeous long brown hair brushed to a sheen in that outrageously long braid of his. Trowa was attractive in a quiet, serious way but his spiky hair scared her a little bit. She wondered if he could poke an eye out with it.

Then her gaze rested on Heero as he ate stew with one hand and typed into a laptop with the other. She studied the dark brown hair in its wild style and the cute serious expression on his face and decided that he was the one she wanted for this year.

"Hey, you're Heero, right?" Kaila asked.

He didn't even look up from his laptop. "Yeah. What do you want?" he asked.

She wasn't prepared for his indifferent attitude and shook her head. "Um, never mind," she told him. '_Hmm, this one might be a challenge._' She looked at Wufei again and suddenly remembered Cheyenne. "Oh, and this is my friend…uh…" She looked around, confused. "Hey, where'd she go?"

"There was never anyone else with you," Trowa told her, eating his pizza slowly.

"Oh…" Kaila's cheeks turned hot. '_Darn you, Cheyenne Weatherstone. Why are you so shy around cute guys? And how could you leave me hanging with __this__ crowd?_'

Meanwhile at the table across from Kaila and the guys, Cheyenne had slipped indiscreetly into a table full of friendly looking kids. The only problem was they were all speaking Japanese. After a couple of minutes, one of the girls at the table turned to her.

"Umm, are you lost?" she asked curiously.

Cheyenne nervously looked up from her food. "Oh! No! No-no-no-no! I _meant_ to sit here. I wanted to…err…expand my horizons and meet new friends," she told the girl. Everyone at the table stopped talking and both Cheyenne and the girl sweat-dropped.

"Um, my name is Yumi…" the girl said after an awkward moment.

Cheyenne sighed gratefully. "Oh, mine's Cheyenne and I uh, I really did mean to sit here!" she tried to convince the others who just laughed and returned to their meals. "Um, I even know a little Japanese! Um…_kawaii_ (cute)…uh…_baka_ (stupid)." A couple of the kids raised their eyebrows at that. "Um…_sayonara_ (good-bye)…uhhh…_hentai_ (porn)…" Immediately the table broke out into laughter and one guy grinned at her eagerly. Cheyenne laughed too, proud of herself. '_Awesome, __I must have said something really funny_!'

"Your friend's a regular riot," Duo commented to Kaila as they ate. "She's got that whole table cracking up."

"I just hope she isn't making a fool of herself," Kaila mumbled.

"Hmn?" Quatre asked.

Kaila looked up quickly and waved her hands in front of her. "I said, "I hope you all get to meet her, she's a really sweet person"," she amended.

"Sort of clumsy, but sweet all the same, I guess," Trowa commented.

Kaila raised an eyebrow, wondering how he could possibly have known that…

**(Hmm…talk about your major mix-up…)**


	2. Chapter 2 Motorcycle Fun

**2) Motorcycle Fun**

"I still might not forgive you for leaving me like that, Shy," Kaila told her friend later that day in irritation.

"Hey! I never said I was right behind you, did I?" Cheyenne huffed.

"Geez, you completely left me hanging. Not to mention you missed a chance to get to know your crush-"

"I know, I know. I'm sorry, okay?"

As the two were walking back to their dorms they noticed a big commotion in the parking lot. They stopped fighting, nodded at each other, and went to see what was going on. They had to elbow their way through the thick crowd but finally, after stepping on plenty of toes, they managed to get to the front.

"Yeah! Go Heero!" someone yelled as Heero zoomed by on a motorcycle. Wufei whizzed by from the opposite direction.

"All right! Wufei is the man!" another person yelled. The crowd continued to cheer them on as they showed off various stunts on their cycles.

"Hey, it's that boy Heero and his friend Wufei I met today. Looks like they're popping wheelies and stuff," Kaila commented.

Cheyenne shrugged, uninterested, and looked around the parking lot for any sign of the spiky haired guy. Kaila had yet to give her any information on him but kept going on and on and _on _about Wufei, the Chinese guy she'd angered earlier. Cheyenne wondered if her friend had a crush on him or something; why else would she keep talking about him?

"Hey, Cheyenne! Are you listening to me?" Kaila asked.

"Huh?"

Kaila sighed. "I said _there's_ the guy you have a crush on."

"Huh, where?" Cheyenne looked around for him.

Kaila raised an eyebrow and shouted above the roaring of the motorcycles. "Are you blind? He's right there!" She gave her a little push in the direction of Wufei, who at the moment was racing towards her on his motorcycle. "Oh no! Cheyenne, look out!" Kaila cried.

Wufei continued to speed towards Cheyenne but she was frozen in place and couldn't move. He grinned at her horror and waited until the last minute possible to veer to the left. Cheyenne, caught between running and dodging, lost her balance and fell, landing face first on the ground. Her skirt flipped up and she basically mooned the entire school. Everyone began to laugh wildly and more shouts of "Wufei, you're the man!" could be heard.

Cheyenne angrily stood up with Kaila's help and waved a fist at Wufei. He waved back as if she were another one of his fans. "I don't believe him!" she yelled. "He basically runs me over with his bike and now he's waving at me as if nothing happened?"

"You're okay, right Cheyenne?" Kaila asked her.

"Yeah…."

"So what are you so worked up about?" Kaila giggled.

"He saw my underwear! The whole school just saw my underwear!"

Kaila only gave her a mischievous smile. "It's only one pair. And besides, you really shouldn't mind if you ask me…" She nudged Cheyenne who blinked.

"Kaye, what in the name of all that is holy are you TALKING ABOUT?" she snapped. It was Kaila's turn to look surprised.

"Isn't…isn't he the one you like?" Kaila asked.

Cheyenne sighed and put a hand to her forehead. "No way on this earth, Kaye," she told her. "Mine has sexy, spiky BROWN hair. Brown! Brown!"

"Oops…." Kaila began. "So then it's Trowa…" Her words were cut off when Heero stopped near them.

"Are you all right?" he asked in a flat tone of voice. Cheyenne nodded.

Kaila's eyes lit up. "Hey, Heero, are you guys still going to the arcade like you said?" Heero nodded. "Cool. Well then, give us a ride, okay? We'll come with you," Kaila suggested. Heero only stared and she rolled her eyes. "Not the both of us, silly! Cheyenne can ride with Wufei."

"What?" Cheyenne snapped in shock.

"Whatever," Heero replied.

Kaila smiled and prepared to hop on, but turned back to Cheyenne first. "Come on, Cheyenne. You only have to ride with him there," she whispered. "You'll meet Trowa once we get to the arcade, I promise."

Cheyenne crossed her arms and frowned. "I dunno…"

Suddenly out of nowhere, Wufei started riding towards the two girls again.

"Heads up!" Kaila cried. Cheyenne could only stare as Wufei gained ground on her and the next thing she knew she was off the ground and hanging on for dear life on his arm.

"All right! Show 'em how it's done, Wufei! Boys rule!" some jerk called out.

"LET ME GO, YOU IDIOT!" Cheyenne screamed as Wufei laughed like a maniac and sped off the campus towards the highway. "What are you doing?"

**(Out of nowhere, Wufei's theme song, _Asu e no DOA wo Tatake_ started to play.)**

"What does it look like?" Wufei snapped. "I'm giving you a ride! Stop holding onto me and climb behind."

Cheyenne gulped and like a daredevil, climbed behind Wufei and wrapped her arms around his waist. It was her first time on a motorcycle and she wasn't enjoying it all that much. She gulped and grabbed him tighter around the waist, clamping her eyes shut, laying her head on his back, and hanging on for dear life.

"Stupid…stupid…stupid…he doesn't even have a helmet on…" she murmured.

"Hey!" His voice drifted back to her. "I didn't say you could get comfortable."

"And I didn't say you could kidnap me! Now drive!" Cheyenne retorted. She couldn't see his smirk as they cruised down the highway towards the arcade for the remainder of his song.

**(Hmm, that means the arcade is three minutes and fifty seconds away…)**


	3. Chapter 3 Rendezvous at the Arcade

**3) Rendezvous at the Arcade**

When Wufei pulled up to the arcade, Cheyenne immediately jumped off the motorcycle and kissed the ground. Wufei rolled his eyes as he parked and walked towards the doors. "Come on, silly woman," he commanded. Cheyenne glanced up angrily from her spot on the ground and then shook off his comment, not voicing the various death threats running through her mind.

As the two walked inside, alternative music slapped them in the face. They saw Trowa on a karaoke stage singing his theme song, _Ai wa Ryuusei_, to a wildly cheering crowd. Cheyenne blinked and smiled at her crush thinking that he was just too, too cute.

"I thought this was an arcade, not a karaoke club," she asked Wufei.

"It's both, get over it," he snapped.

Cheyenne huffed. "Do ya have to be so snappish?"

Wufei only shrugged while Trowa finished his song, leapt off the stage and walked towards them. Some other kid walked nervously to the stage then and began singing a song from Sailor Moon to which half of the crowd encouraged her with cheers, while the other half booed her horribly.

Trowa reached Wufei and Cheyenne and frowned a little. "Hunh, you're not Kaila," he said.

Cheyenne shook her head. "Nope, I'm her best friend, Cheyenne."

"Ohh, so _you're_ the no-show from the café," Duo responded, coming up behind them.

Cheyenne grinned. "Yeah, that would be me, Cousin Duo," she replied. The other two guys looked surprised as Duo grinned back.

"She's your cousin?" Trowa asked slowly. "I don't see any resemblance at all."

"Well, Cheyenne's like my third cousin twice removed," Duo responded.

Cheyenne laughed as she tried to explain. "Yeah, see, my Great-Aunt Shirley had a daughter who knew Duo's mother's cousin Bob who married and had a child with my father's sister's niece, which makes us-"

"Not really related at all," Wufei supplied. Cheyenne rolled her eyes and Duo shrugged.

"Well, we like to think we are," Duo told him and turned to Cheyenne. "I didn't think you were comin' to this school, Cuz."

"I almost didn't, but they accepted me for spring semester, so here I am!" Cheyenne responded cheerfully.

Duo nodded just as Quatre appeared out of nowhere dancing up a storm, doing the running man, the cabbage patch, the Roger Rabbit and then ending with the robot.

"Come on guys, this song is HOT!" Quatre shouted, taking his blazer off and twirling it around his head.

"Wow…" Cheyenne commented.

Duo held a hand to his head. "Uh oh, someone's had a little too much caffeine today," he muttered.

"YEAH!"

Cheyenne giggled and gestured around. "So is this what you guys usually do here?" she asked.

Trowa nodded. "We usually relax with a game of Sizzling Car Pursuit." He gestured toward the car game they were standing next to. "But Heero's not here."

"Well, I can race a little, I'll play," Cheyenne suggested.

"_You_?" Wufei snorted.

"Yes, me!" Cheyenne glared at him, then turned to the rest. "What do you guys say?"

"Fine with me," Duo told her. "You get to sit in seat #1 since that's Heero's seat. Come on guys, let's do it."

The group sat down at the arcade game and put their quarters in the slots. As Cheyenne sat back she heard a cool R&B song come on and a little Pokémon named "Pick-Your-Car" appeared on the screen. "Pick your car! Pick your car!" it said over and over. Cheyenne scrolled down through the cars and finally settled on a cool yellow Porsche. She pushed in the gas pedal to signal she was ready.

Soon all five of them were waiting at the start line, revving their engines. The screen showed the numbers, "Three-Two-One" and then "Go-Go-Go!" And they were off! A cool techno song popped up in the background as they raced through the countryside.

Quatre was up front with his black Lamborghini. "Yeah! Another win for me!" he laughed and he sped forward.

"Man, how many sodas did you _have_, Quatre?" Duo laughed as his dark green Ferrari sideswiped Quatre making the Lamborghini crash into a tree. He proceeded to pass Quatre easily. "You know with _me_ racing, you're gonna lose!

"Hey!" Quatre yelled, recovering quickly from his crash and tailing him. Cheyenne didn't say anything as she concentrated on Trowa's dark red Corvette in front of her. She tailed him for a while and then when she saw the chance, passed him and raced on towards Quatre's car.

"Pretty smooth," she heard Trowa comment and she beamed. She then proceeded to pass Quatre pretty easily and was soon neck and neck with Duo.

As the five played, Heero and Kaila walked into the arcade and moved over to the car game to watch.

"Ha, ha! That's my cousin all right! Her first time playing us and she's got all of y'all beat!" Duo laughed. The guys didn't respond but continued to race. After a few more minutes, Cheyenne managed to pass Duo's Ferrari and her little Porsche was speeding towards the finish line.

"Go 'head girl! You're in first! You're gonna win!" Kaila cried as the finish line got closer and closer. Cheyenne nodded eagerly, but right before she crossed the finish line, a candy red Viper zoomed past her and crossed it first, landing her in second place at the last minute.

"Wha..?" Cheyenne gasped, her mouth dropping. She could hear Wufei's arrogant laughter from seat #5. "It figures," she muttered. Duo was right after her coming in third.

"Ah, man," Quatre sighed as he came in fourth. Trowa muttered something unintelligible as he crossed the finish line last.

"As if a woman could defeat me in _anything_," Wufei laughed. "Did you hear that, woman? Huh?" he added. When Cheyenne didn't respond, Wufei leapt out of his seat and came over to her side. "Too bad, but you never really had a chance," he sneered. Cheyenne only rolled her eyes as everyone else piled out of their game seats.

"But still, you raced really good, Cheyenne. Where'd you learn to drive like that?" Duo-the only one still sitting in his seat-asked her.

"My brother. He's an expert at these things," Cheyenne replied.

Duo nodded. "I'm impressed."

Cheyenne smiled and bent over to tap Duo's nose. "I knew you were my favorite!" she gushed.

Wufei snorted. "Better watch how you bend over, woman. You don't want to show us your lacey underwear again, do ya?"

Cheyenne's cheeks felt hot and she straightened to turn swiftly to Wufei. "Shut UP, you big-headed, arrogant, chauvinistic..." She stopped abruptly when she looked up into Wufei's eyes for truly the first time. It was something she hadn't really noticed before, but Wufei was, well, _fine…_and she was sort of attracted to him. '_Dagnabit_,' she thought angrily to herself. '_HIM of all people?_'

Wufei raised an eyebrow at Cheyenne as she stood there staring at him. "Go on," he told her. "You were at "chauvinistic"."

Cheyenne only rolled her eyes and turned away from him. "I refuse to humor you anymore," she huffed. Wufei only shrugged in reply.

"Hey, do you guys want to come to the movies with us?" Quatre asked out of the blue. Cheyenne looked at Kaila, who nodded immediately.

"Yeah, sure," Kaila grinned. They told the guys their dorm names and Kaila gave Quatre her phone number. "Call me and let me know when you're gonna pick us up, okay?" she asked. Quatre smiled and nodded.

Wufei stretched and yawned. "I guess I have to take you home now, huh?" he asked Cheyenne, who shrugged.

"You really don't have to. I can catch a ride home with Duo."

"Umm," Duo blushed. "Uo-day As-hay no Ar-cay," he whispered in Pig Latin.

"Oh."

"But I do," Quatre piped up. "You can head home with me, Cheyenne." Cheyenne nodded but Wufei shook his head.

"Go home with slow-poke Quatre? You won't get back until eight tonight!" he snapped.

"Better than riding with a speed demon like you," she replied.

Wufei looked at her. "I don't speed. My motorcycle is the safest thing around."

"And yet you don't have a helmet!" Cheyenne snapped. Wufei rolled his eyes at her.

Quatre grabbed his keys. "Ready, Cheyenne?" he asked in a friendly tone. Cheyenne opened her mouth but didn't have the chance to answer as Wufei suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her out after him.

"Come on already," he mumbled. "Just to prove you wrong."

Cheyenne's eyes widened in surprise and she hid a smile. "Um, okay," she told him and waved good-bye to everyone as they headed out to Wufei's motorcycle.

Heero and Kaila followed them out and Wufei let go of Cheyenne's arm.

"I'll make sure to call you later and let you know what time everyone decides on, Shy," Kaila told her friend.

Cheyenne raised an eyebrow. "And where are _you_ going?" she asked. Kaila only smiled. "Great, neither one of you are talking. Fine, call me, okay Kaye?"

Kaila nodded and got behind Heero on his motorcycle. Heero threw a deuce and Kaila waved as they sped off.

Cheyenne sighed wearily as she sat behind Wufei on his bike. "You really should get a helmet for this thing," she told him for the third time that day. Wufei revved his engine and roared off without answering. When they were on the highway headed back to the campus, he turned his head slightly.

"Are you _that_ worried about me?" he asked.

Cheyenne couldn't tell his tone of voice and shrugged. "More worried about _me_, actually. If you had a helmet, than I could wear it."

"Why would I want your greasy head in my helmet, woman?"

"_I don't have a greasy head!_" Cheyenne shouted at him. She could tell he was laughing at her by the way his back shook and she rolled her eyes. How could she ever have been attracted to him?

She sighed and then smiled to herself as she watched the scenery go by. It was only her first day of school and her social life was already getting complicated. She had a crush on one guy who had yet to show any interest in her and she was attracted to another who treated her like dirt. She wearily laid her forehead on Wufei's back as they rode along. '_I really need to get my priorities straight_.'

"Um, are you alright?" Wufei asked suddenly.

She looked up and over his shoulder. "Why do you ask?"

He studied her face from his side mirror. "Because you don't look good at all."

"I _am_ feeling a little dizzy," Cheyenne agreed.

He immediately pulled off an exit ramp and drove up to a hilly park. He parked rather quickly then and shooed her off his ride. "Get off now before you throw up all over Nataku. I just washed her, you know."

Cheyenne hopped off and turned back to him. "You named your motorcycle?" she asked. Wufei shrugged in response and she sighed, beginning to walk up to the edge of the hill.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"To see the view," she replied. "Don't worry, if I have to throw up, I'll run right back to ya." Wufei smirked a little and then got off of his bike to follow her. When Cheyenne reached the top of the hill, she took in a deep breath of the fresh air surrounding her. She immediately began to feel better and closed her eyes, continuing to breathe in the air.

Wufei reached her side and stared at her for a minute, then squatted on the ground to look over the hill. A couple of birds flew past them chirping happily and cars roared away on the freeway below. For a while, those were the only sounds to be heard.

"Feeling better?" he asked abruptly.

She opened her gray eyes and looked down at him, wondering when he had followed her. "Yes, I am." She sat on the ground next to him to look down at the cars below. "Nice view," she added.

He shrugged. "It's all right. But you should see the view from space."

"Oh yeah, I bet you and your friends hang out there all the time, huh?" Her tone was highly sarcastic.

Wufei continued to look out at the cars and the forest beyond. "I don't really have many friends," he said quietly.

"What about Heero, Quatre, Duo and Trowa?" she asked. "I thought you guys were like brothers or something?"

"More like distant cousins," Wufei smirked and turned to her. "Like you and Duo."

She caught his eye for a minute. "Wufei, what made you pick me up on your motorcycle back at the parking lot?"

He blinked and turned his gaze back out over the hill. '_Why did I?_' he asked himself. '_Was it just because she was in the way? Or was it…crap. What was it?_' "I overheard Kaila telling Heero to give her a ride and I assumed you needed one, too. That's all," he answered finally.

"Oh," Cheyenne replied, looking out at the cars and wondering just how he could have heard Kaila and Heero's conversation over the loud motorcycle engines.

He glanced at her. "What did you want me to say? Because you were cute or something lame like that?" he smirked.

"It'd be nice to hear that once in awhile," she muttered. "In general…"

He shook his head. "You shouldn't need someone to tell you you're cute. If you are then you know it and people don't need to remind you of it every minute. You must be really insecure."

"I guess I am a little," she responded, looking shyly up at him. "So…do you think I'm cute?"

"What I think doesn't matter if _you_ don't think you are," he replied, avoiding the question. After a moment, he glanced over at her. "But if it's any consolation, Trowa thinks you are, so that should make you happy."

"What?" Her eyes widened but then she tried to act nonchalant. "Um, why should I care if Trowa thinks so?"

Wufei closed his eyes and smirked at her. "Humph. Woman, please. It's so obvious."

Cheyenne blinked. "Wufei…"

His eyes fluttered open suddenly. "So are you in pain, yet?" he asked.

"What?" she asked, not comprehending.

He shrugged. "Are you in pain yet?"

"Uh, no?"

"I'm surprised, what with all those red ants running up and down your legs."

"WHAT?" Cheyenne leapt off the ground and started to jump around. "Get them off me, get them off me, get them off me! Ants, get off me!" she yelped, brushing her legs and arms and shaking the ants off. Wufei fell on his back and started to laugh at her. After several minutes of checking herself and brushing her clothes, she glared at him. "You could have told me that _sooner_!" she snapped. Wufei couldn't answer through his laughter and eventually she smiled helplessly at him. Once he got his voice back, though, he jumped up and started walking towards his motorcycle.

"You're obviously feeling better now. I'll take you home," he told her.

She shook her head at him. "I'll get you back for this, Wufei, you'll see."

"Whatever woman," he smirked though he found himself watching her as she walked ahead of him to Nataku. No doubt about it, Cheyenne was cute and funny, and sweet and intelligent…for a girl anyway…

Wufei quickly stopped that train of thought. '_Don't tell me you're falling for her, Chang. Get a hold of yourself,_' he told himself firmly as he reached the motorcycle. '_She's nowhere near as strong as Nataku_.'

**(Of course not, Wufei! BTW, he's referring to Nataku the person and not the motorcycle!)**


	4. Chapter 4 Conversations

**4) Conversations**

Wufei dropped Cheyenne off in front of her dorm, Mercury Hall. **(All of the dorms are named after planets. Don't ask why!)** Cheyenne smiled and thanked him for the ride but he only nodded and sped off. She watched him speed out of sight and then walked into her hall where she was met with her nosy Hall Advisor, Ms. Batty.

"And whooo was that?" Ms. Batty asked, looking at Cheyenne curiously over her iron-rimmed glasses.

Cheyenne sighed, used to giving info on all her friends to her parents. '_But this is college and I don't have to tell this chick nothing!_' her inner self rebelled.

"Um, just my friend…" she answered quickly and then ran to the elevator that took her up to her room. When she arrived on the third floor, she realized that she didn't even know who her roommate was. She had just moved her stuff in that morning and sped off to class with Kaila. She hadn't even been to her room since then!

As she approached room 312, she could hear loud rap music coming from someone's radio. '_Dag, some people are so inconsiderate!_' she thought. But when she reached her door, she realized that the music was coming from her room! Sighing, she opened the door and immediately recognized the dark spiky green-haired girl sitting on the bed, sucking a lollipop and reading a Japanese Manga. She was the same one who'd introduced herself at the Japanese table. She had olive skin with a mole underneath her right eye, reddish-brown eyes and an old-school star-spiked Mohawk. From one ear hung a moon earring and in the other was a sun. Her outfit was clearly punk with tons of jewelry, pink knee socks, a short leather black skirt and a white button-down shirt with a tie on.

"Hey, roomie!" the girl greeted and reached for the radio remote to turn down her music. "It's Cheyenne, right? Duh, I know it's you, I already looked through your bags and stuff," she snickered. "Anyway, cool, we've already met and everything. I'm Yumi remember?"

"Yup!" Cheyenne grinned, letting the bags statement slide. "Sorry to barge in on you in the middle of the year like this."

"It's cool. I missed talking to someone in ear range anyway," she replied, then raised an eyebrow. "I hope you don't snore or anything."

"Don't worry, I don't," Cheyenne laughed.

Yumi smiled again and looked her new roommate up and down with her large reddish-brown eyes. "Why are you still in your school uniform? When my classes are over, I basically run to my room and throw that tacky thing off."

Cheyenne nodded and dropped down into one of their chairs. "Believe me, I'm ready to take this thing off, too." She removed her heeled shoes from her feet. "The only reason I'm still in my uniform is 'cause I met some friends and they took me to the arcade after class."

"Wow, you make friends quick!" Yumi responded. "But then again, I'm not surprised since you like to "expand your horizons" and all," she added seriously.

"You didn't believe that for a minute, did you?"

"Ummm, sorry, no," Yumi laughed and Cheyenne laughed with her.

Later that afternoon, Wufei sped over the highway with his newly bought helmet and gloves on. **(For some reason, Heero's song, _Take Off to the Sky_ was playing in the background!)** He'd changed into his usual outfit which consisted of a white Chinese-style jacket over a blue muscle shirt, white pants and black shoes. The setting sun glinted off his helmet as he headed towards Colony Ranch, the place where Trowa worked part-time. Out of all the guys, Wufei had gotten the closest to Trowa and he sort of felt like talking to him all of a sudden. Once he parked his motorcycle, he walked over to where the horses were prancing around inside a wooden fence. He saw Trowa brushing one of the horses down as he drew nearer.

Trowa glanced up as he approached. "Hey Wufei," he greeted. He wore his usual green turtleneck and blue jeans, but at the moment had on knee-high black leather boots since he was on the ranch.

Wufei leant over the fence. "Has Lil' Nataku gotten over her fever?"

"Yes, your horse is fine. Don't ride her so long next time, okay?"

Wufei nodded, "You almost done?"

Trowa nodded back, "As soon as I finish brushing Catherine down, I'll be finished." Wufei nodded yet again and sat down on top of the wooden fence. "Something must be on your mind," Trowa added but Wufei didn't respond. Once Trowa was done brushing down his horse, he put the rest of the horses back into that thingamajig you keep horses in and then joined Wufei at the fence, leaning on it with both elbows.

They were silent for a while as they watched the sunset. Wufei didn't want to tell Trowa that the sunset reminded him strongly of Cheyenne's sunset-colored hair, but it turned out that he didn't have to.

"Doesn't the sunset kind of remind you of that new girl, Cheyenne?" Trowa asked as if reading his mind.

Wufei shrugged nonchalantly. "Uh, I guess, but she's the furthest thing from my mind right now. Why do you ask? Were you thinking about her?"

It was Trowa's turn to shrug. "So what's on your mind?" he asked, changing the subject instead.

Wufei continued to stare at the sunset. "Do you consider me your friend, Trowa?"

Trowa raised an eyebrow. "Well, yes," he responded after a moment. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason," Wufei began, but rethought his answer. "Well there is a reason. But it's too complicated to explain right now."

"I see." Trowa didn't pry further and the two didn't say much else as the sun continued to set. Finally Trowa stretched and turned to him. "Well, I guess we should go get ready for the movie, right?"

"Right," Wufei nodded.

**(Hmm, that was kind of pointless, neh?)**

**(*)  
**

"So you were hiding out from your crush?" Yumi laughed after Cheyenne told her the café story. "Shy-chan, I would never have thought you were shy!"

"Well," Cheyenne smiled and remembered her conversation with Wufei. "I'm getting better, I think."

The phone rang then and Yumi leant over to her desk to pick it up. "Hello? Yeah, hold on." She tossed the silver cordless phone over to Cheyenne. "For you."

Cheyenne nodded her thanks and held to phone to her ear. "Hello?"

"Wasuuuuuuuuuup?" Kaila's voice asked from the other end.

"Hey girl, so you finally got home?" Cheyenne laughed.

"Girl, hush. Anyway I need your help."

"What happened? Heero actually talked to you?"

"No crackhead! Well, I mean, yes he did talk, but," Kaila huffed and started again. "That's beside the point. I need you to help me pick out an outfit. I'm having a fashion crisis over here!"

"Okay, what are my choices?" Cheyenne asked.

"My violet FUBU low cut shirt with my black skirt; my white Polo shirt with blue jeans, or my white t-shirt with that Japanese symbol on it and blue jeans?"

"Hmm," Cheyenne thought about it seriously. "I wouldn't wear the black skirt and the FUBU 'cause you'd be too dressed up for a movie. And since Heero's Japanese, you should wear the Japanese shirt. Maybe that way you can strike up a conversation or something."

"Okay, that works," Kaila agreed.

Yumi snorted from her Manga but she was smiling. Cheyenne turned and threw a pillow at her but Yumi only laughed and threw it back. "What if the conversation he starts is _in_ Japanese?" Yumi joked. "Oh, wait, since _you_ know some Japanese, Cheyenne, I guess you could help her out!"

"Shut up!"

"Huh? What'd I say?" Kaila asked from the phone.

"Oh, not you girl, I was talking to my roommate."

"Ohhh, at least your roommate talks. All mine does is sleep all day," Kaila sighed. "So anyways, what about you? What are you wearin'?"

Cheyenne grinned into the phone. "My COLO button down shirt that I'll tie up to show my stomach and my dark blue jeans."

Kaila was silent for a moment. "Um, okay, Shy, I'll bite, what the heck is a COLO?"

Cheyenne laughed. "My off-brand Polo shirt! You know how I do!" She could tell that Kaila was shaking her head and grinned again. "So where did you and Heero end up goin'?"

"To his apartment. Now don't go getting any weird ideas! I just asked him what dorm he lived in and instead of answering me he showed me his apartment," Kaila replied quickly.

"And then he showed you around it?"

"Yeah, it's a cool little futuristic place. He didn't say much the whole time, though."

Cheyenne frowned. "Um, he's kind of...off, don't you think?"

"Well, maybe," Kaila said. "But he's so cute, I don't think it matters." It was Cheyenne's turn to shake her head. "And what about you and Wufei?" Kaila asked. "Any love connection there?" Kaila couldn't see that Cheyenne's face went a little red.

"Um…" Cheyenne muttered.

"Oh yeah, I forgot! You don't like him, you like Trowa right?" Kaila corrected herself.

Cheyenne sighed in relief. "Well, that's how it started out," she admitted. "But as today went on and I spent more time alone with Wufei, well, I realized that he was pretty cute. And later after the arcade he took to me to this park place near campus-"

"Cosmo Park," Yumi told her, not looking up from her Manga.

"Yeah, Cosmo Park, and we were talking about life and stuff and I sort of realized that he's not as mean as I thought. Well, he _is_ mean, but it's all a front. Inside I think he's a really deep, sweet person. Of course, I could be _way_ off but, um, Kaila? Kaye, are you listening to me? Hello? Hey!"

"I was listening to ya!" Kaila yelled back into the phone.

"You were?"

"Um, well, actually...sorry, no I wasn't. Are you sure I should wear this shirt? For all I know it could say "I'm an idiot" in Japanese!"

"Kaye," Cheyenne was ready to reach into the phone and throttle her best friend.

Over in Pluto Hall, Kaila realized what she had done and felt kind of bad. "My bad, I'm sorry, Cheyenne. Really! I heard most of what you said about Wufei but I just don't know what to tell you. I think you're way off on his personality though 'cause the guy's just a big jerk. But if you think somethin' different, just wait and see, I guess."

"Thanks, Kaye," Cheyenne replied. "Hey, what are you doing with your hair?"

"I'm probably gonna take it out of the braids and wear some of it up. What about you?"

"Umm, just leave it the way it is, I guess?" Cheyenne told her.

Kaila sighed. "I guess this means I have to trek all the way to Mercury Hall and do your hair for ya and _then_ trek all the way back here to take a shower and get ready, right?"

"Yup! Thanks Kaye!" Cheyenne grinned.

Kaila laughed. "It's all good, Shy. Too bad we couldn't get the same hall, though."

"Yeah, I guess it's 'cause we came here in the middle of the year. But there's always the fall."

"True, true. Oh, what do you want me to do with your hair? One long braid like Duo?" Kaila giggled.

Cheyenne laughed too. "No. I think Cousin Duo's trying to make his own statement with that one!"

Kaila paused. "Huh? "Cousin"? Um, Shy? You two are, uh, on opposite sides of the hemisphere, looks-wise."

"I know, I know. I'll explain when you get ova here," Cheyenne smiled.

"Then I'm on my way!"

**(*)**

"Come in, Duo," Heero replied from his place on the couch.

Duo happily popped into Heero's apartment and his song _Wild Wing Boys _began to play. **(Strange, huh?)** "How'd ya know it was me, Heero?" Duo asked, finding Heero laying on the couch and plopping down in the chair across from him.

Heero placed both hands behind his head and closed his eyes, wondering where Relena was. He was wearing his usual green tank top and black spandex shorts with tennis shoes. "You're the only one who knocks and says "Hey Heero, are ya there?" through the door," he responded emotionlessly.

Duo only grinned as he leant forward to take off his black hat, wearing his customary all-black outfit. "So, what's the story on you and Kaila, huh?" he asked. Heero didn't answer him and Duo's grin only got wider. "Ah, c'mon, you can tell me, Heero. I already think you kinda like her and she _is_ fiiiiiiiiiiiiine!"

He waited for Heero to respond, but when he didn't, he rolled his eyes and sighed. "What was I thinking? Of course, you never tell me anything right?" Duo leapt off the chair and strolled around the futuristic looking apartment. The color scheme was mostly dark grays, blues and blacks, and there were paintings with a space theme on almost every wall. "Yuck, I hope you didn't bring her to _this_ boring place. Not only is it dark and dreary, but it's a mess!" Duo exclaimed as he stepped over some socks lying on the floor.

"Sorry," Heero replied without feeling.

"Sure you are!" Duo continued to walk around the apartment but stopped once he reached Heero's stereo. "Man, this is a _nice_ system though! It's gotta be new. I don't remember this remote before."

"Why are you here, Duo?"

Duo spun around to face him. "Hey, do you have Culture Club?" he asked instead of an answer.

"What?"

"You know? Boy George?" He turned back to look through Heero's CD's.

Heero narrowed his eyes as he sat up. "No. Get away from there."

"What about The Party?"

"The who?"

"No, not The Who. The _Party_. You know, off of the Mickey Mouse Club?" Duo turned back to him and shook his head. "Man, you don't have _anything_ cool, do you?"

"What do you-" Heero stopped and covered his eyes with a hand. "Why are you here, Duo?"

Duo turned back to the CD's, trying to find something interesting. "To make sure you're ready for your little movie date with Kaila."

"I wasn't planning on going."

"I know! That's why I'm here to make sure that you do!" Duo finally turned around with an old Best of Prince CD in his hands. "Oh yeah! I'm borrowing this, dude. "Little Red Corvette?" "Purple Rain?" "When Doves Cry?" "1999?" Ah man, this's a classic!"

"Duo..." Heero let the subject drop and returned to the movie deal. "How are we all supposed to get to the movies anyway?"

"C'mon man, Quatre's picking us all up, remember?" Duo eyed Heero's clothes. "You're not wearing _that_, are you?"

Heero shrugged. "Yeah?"

"The spandex too?"

"It's 100% Gundamium. It never rips or tears. I never wear anything else."

"I know," Duo sighed. "Well, I guess making a good impression is out!"

**(Heero's just being himself, I guess.)**


	5. Chapter 5 Movie Disaster

**5) Movie Disaster**

"Quatre, how're we going to pick everyone up in time if you don't go faster?" Wufei complained from the first row of Quatre's white Lincoln Navigator.

"I'm not sure what the speed limit is, so I'm going 25, okay?" Quatre told him, a little irritated.

Wufei narrowed his eyes. "Come on man, at least go 40. Isn't that the right speed for a residential area?"

"Actually, it's 35," Trowa replied from his seat next to Quatre.

"I didn't ask you, okay?" Wufei snapped.

Quatre sighed. "All right, stop fighting. I'll go 35. Is that okay with you, Mr. Chang? "

"Just about," Wufei retorted, leaning back as Quatre sped up a little, heading toward Heero's apartment first. When they pulled up in front of Heero's apartment complex, Trowa slid out and called up to Heero's room from the call box on the outside gate.

Duo's cheerful voice answered. "We'll be right out!" he told Trowa, who nodded even though Duo couldn't see him. As soon as Trowa got back into his seat, Duo burst through the front door and ran through the gate towards the Navigator. When he jumped in, he sat in the row behind Quatre and Trowa. Wufei rolled his eyes and moved back one row. Heero slowly walked to the Navigator after Duo. Once he reached it, he looked at Trowa who shrugged and moved to the far back with Wufei in the row behind Duo. **(Heero always has to ride shotgun…)**

"Okay, so where does Kaila live?" Quatre asked everyone.

Duo groaned. "I thought she gave you her number so you could call her?"

"Oh yeah," Quatre said, getting her number from his pocket and handing it and his cell phone over to Heero. "Here, call her. It's not safe to use the phone and drive at the same time."

Heero took the phone and only stared at it so Duo reached up and snatched it from him. "Never mind! I'll call homechick," he told the guys as he dialed Kaila's number. After ringing a couple of times, a female voice answered.

"Hewolll?" it asked, sounding sleepy.

"Don't tell me this is Kaila?" Duo asked in dismay.

"Nooo. Kaye…phonizfoyyyou…" the voice murmured sleepily. Duo heard Kaila in the background thanking her roommate.

"Hello?" Kaila asked as she got on the phone.

"Hey Kaye! It's Duo."

"Hey, Duo! What's wrong? You guys decide not to go?"

"Nah, we're already on the way!"

"Um, what?"

"Yeah, blame Quatre for not calling you earlier…"

"A thousand apologies, Kaila. It won't happen again," Quatre told her from the driver's seat.

"Hey! Just concentrate on drivin'!" Duo joked, then turned his attention back to Kaila. "So what hall are you in?"

"Um, hold up, you're coming _now_?"

"Yeah…is that okay?" Duo wanted to know. He heard her sigh in reply.

"It's fine, I guess. Men, sheesh. Tell Quatre he better duck once I get in the car," she warned. Duo chuckled as she continued. "Anyway, I live in Pluto Hall, you know where that is?"

"Yep, right next to Neptune Hall. We'll be there in no time, so be ready, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," Kaila muttered, glad that she had already taken her shower. She was also thinking that she had to call Cheyenne so she could be prepared to go, too. "C-ya."

"Bye Kaye!" Duo said cheerfully and hung up. He handed the phone back to Quatre but kept the number and put it in his pocket. "Pluto Hall, Quatre, and on the double!"

Wufei closed his eyes and laid his head back on the chair. "This should take about twenty minutes at the rate Quatre's driving…" he muttered. Ten minutes later, Quatre pulled up to Kaila's dorm and Duo jumped out to get her. Since it was after hours he had to knock on the door first.

"And don't fraternize with the women!" Wufei yelled out of the window. Duo turned around and playfully shook his fist at him.

Miss Tsukino, Kaila's relatively young Hall Advisor or H.A. peeked out the door, saw Duo's braid, and immediately assumed he was a girl. "Oh come on in, sweetie. Did you forget your key?" she asked, ushering him in.

"Huh?" Duo turned around to face the H.A. She had big blue eyes and blonde hair that was in two long ponytails. '_Geez, and I thought MY hair was long…_'

Miss Tsukino covered her mouth in surprise when she realized her mistake. "Oh! I'm sorry. I saw your braid and thought…well, never mind. My name is Usagi but you can call me Bunny! Are you here to take one of my girls out?"

"Uh, yeah… her name is Kaila?" Duo told the overfriendly H.A.

Bunny laughed happily, clapped her hands and then went over to her desk. "Oh, I'm so happy when my little girls get little boyfriends because then they're happy! And when they're happy, I'm happy, you know?" she gushed.

Duo scratched his head. "Um, I guess…"

Bunny's smile widened as she paged Kaila's room. "Kaye! Your cute little friend is here to pick you up!" she told her.

"I'll be right down," Duo heard Kaila say. Bunny nodded and sat on her desk. She just smiled at Duo which made him _really _uncomfortable after a few minutes. Not soon enough, Kaila came down the stairs and smiled at him. She had on a white blouse with a Japanese symbol on it, blue jeans and black sandals. Her dark violet-blue hair flowed down her shoulders and she looked very pretty.

Duo smiled, heaved a sigh of relief and grabbed her hand. "You look great, c'mon let's go." He fairly dragged her out the door.

"Wha, hey!" Kaila cried.

Bunny followed them to the door, continually smiling. "Have a good tiiiime!" she cooed, waving as she shut the door behind them.

Kaila looked questioningly at Duo. "Why the rush, and why are you holdin' my hand?" she asked.

Duo blushed and let go. "I didn't want to disappoint Bunny. She thought I was taking you out," he explained.

Kaila laughed. "Oh, I understand." The two got to the car and Kaila climbed in beside Duo. "Hey guys," she greeted them. She received various grunts and one smile from Quatre in reply. "Geez, what's wrong with y'all?" she asked.

"Long story…" Trowa responded.

"Oh," Kaila shrugged and let it go. "Wow, nice ride, Quatre." She looked around with an impressed nod. "Do you keep this baby on campus?"

"No, I stay off campus."

"With his sisters," Duo added, sucking his thumb.

Quatre saw him through the rear-view mirror. "Leave me alone, Duo," he said, but he was laughing.

"And where do the rest of y'all live?" Kaila asked.

"Trowa and I live in Saturn Hall," Duo responded and Trowa nodded.

Kaila turned to Wufei. "What about you?"

"Mars," he replied, looking out the window.

Kaila raised an eyebrow. '_Sheesh, why do I even bother with him?_'

"Where does Cheyenne live, Kaila?" Quatre asked from the front.

"Mercury Hall," she answered, buckling her seatbelt and looking around at the group. '_Now I'm glad I didn't get all dressed up. These guys are just wearing whatever. Wow, I can't believe Quatre has a PINK shirt on…and is Heero wearing SPANDEX?_'

"Wow, Cheyenne's on the opposite side of the campus. Too bad for you, huh?" Quatre asked.

Kaila nodded, dragging her attention away from Heero's attire. "Uh-huh," she answered.

"Glad you buckled up, Kaila. Quatre's a real speed demon," Wufei mumbled from behind her.

"Oh, okay…" Kaila didn't really get the comment since Quatre seemed to be driving relatively slow to her. "So…" Kaila began after a couple minutes of silence. "How much hairspray does that take, Trowa?" she asked him, referring to his hairstyle.

Trowa only stared at her. "Not much," he finally answered. After attempting several more times to make conversation with them Kaila sighed.

"Can we listen to some music along the way? I have a feeling no one's going to be talking in here." Quatre complied and turned the radio on. "Turn it to 95.5 WOTZ," Kaila suggested.

"R&B? No, no, turn it to Q100," Trowa told him. Quatre did and alternative music came on through the speakers.

"Aw, turn it back to 95.5," Duo told Quatre.

When he did, Wufei piped up from the back. "Hey! That was my favorite song on Q100, turn it back!"

"Why don't we just try the oldies station?" Duo suggested.

"K106 plays everything, we can try that," Kaila added.

"Just turn to the jazz station, Quatre," Heero ordered.

Quatre threw his hands in the air and then placed them immediately back on the wheel at ten and two. "NO! You know what? It's my car and it's my radio and we're listening to 87.2!" He violently pushed the button on his radio and Mozart began to play. Everyone in the car groaned.

"Well, I've got a Prince CD," Duo suggested helpfully, holding it up.

"Shut up, Duo," Heero snapped.

**(*)**

Quatre pulled up in front of Mercury Hall in an irritated mood. Duo looked at Kaila expectantly but she was busy putting lip-gloss. He sighed, stepped out the Navigator and headed towards Cheyenne's hall. '_Cheyenne's Hall Advisor can't be as bad as Kaila's…_' he thought as he reluctantly knocked; but as he tapped the door he heard something tinkle onto the ground. When he looked down, he saw that several pennies had fallen out from a newly formed hole in his pocket. "Ah man…"

When Ms. Batty opened the door all she saw was a figure dressed completely in black looking down at the ground. She screamed and slammed the door on him. Duo snapped his head up to see what had happened, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary…

Inside Mercury Hall, Cheyenne was ready and waiting in the lobby. Seeing Ms. Batty's surprise she stood up immediately. She had on her COLO shirt and blue jeans as promised and her hair was in a high ponytail with two braids on each side of her face.

"What is it, Ms. Batty?" she asked.

Ms. Batty leant back against the door, breathing heavily. "There's a maniac who's trying to kill us outside!" she cried.

Cheyenne walked over and peeked out the window. "Oh, Ms. Batty, that's just my friend, Duo," she replied, unbolting and opening the door. She refrained from saying "my cousin, Duo" because Ms. Batty would never believe _that_. "Hey Duo!" she greeted.

Duo looked confused. "Um…hi…" he started.

Ms. Batty was right behind Cheyenne, looking at him with cruel eyes. "Humph. You have no right to go around scaring defenseless women like that!"

Cheyenne rolled her eyes at Ms. Batty's statement. '_Wufei would love her…_'

"I don't remember doing anything…" Duo protested.

"Don't get snappish with me, young man! What's your name?"

"Duo, Duo Maxwell."

"And where are you taking my ward?" Ms. Batty continued.

"Um, to the movies…?" Duo wasn't sure why he was giving the 411 but he was getting a little irritated at the woman.

Cheyenne noticed and quickly pushed him out the door. "Um, let's go, Duo…"

Ms. Batty followed close behind. "Wait a second, Miss Weatherspoon! Are you wearing make-up?"

Cheyenne turned around and sighed. "It's Weather_stone_, Ms. Batty, and no, I don't have any make-up on. You checked with your thumb before, remember?" She inwardly shuddered at the memory of her advisor sliding a wet thumb down her cheek to check.

"Ew," Duo supplied.

"Good. But isn't your shirt a little high?" Cheyenne sighed and pulled her shirt down a little. "Hmm…" Ms. Batty murmured, looking Cheyenne over and nodding. "I guess that'll have to do." She then turned her gaze to the Navigator. "Exactly how many people _are_ there in that vehicle…?"

Duo grabbed Cheyenne's hand before she could answer and pulled her out towards the Navigator. "That's it! Come on, Cuz," he muttered. Cheyenne gladly followed him with a shake of her head.

"Sorry, Duo."

"I don't know which advisor is worse!" he complained. When they reached the Navigator, Duo slid in next to Kaila in the second row again and Cheyenne climbed in-between Wufei and Trowa in the back row. "Drive, Quatre, drive!" Duo grabbed onto his seat like his life depended on it.

"Thank goodness for tinted windows!" Cheyenne sighed, extremely glad that Ms. Batty couldn't see into the car to find out that she was going with four other guys.

"What do you mean by that?" Heero asked her. Trowa raised an eyebrow, wondering if she meant what he thought she meant.

Cheyenne shook her head as Quatre drove off. "Long story."

"Did I say you could sit next to me, woman?" Wufei asked her abruptly.

"Nice to see you too, Wufei," she greeted and turned to Trowa. "You don't mind if I sit here, do you, Trowa?" she asked, even though butterflies were fluttering in her stomach. Trowa shook his head and Cheyenne smiled. "Just once, Trowa, can you just say _something_?"

"Something," he replied and a small smile appeared on his face. Cheyenne laughed like it was the funniest thing she had ever heard. She threw her hands in the air wildly and then pointed at Trowa like he was the funniest guy alive. Trowa's facial expression clearly said, "What'd I say?"

"I don't think he said anything all that funny…" Wufei supplied from his window seat.

"Wufei, stop acting like a jealous boyfriend!" Kaila piped up from in front of him.

Wufei glared at her. "Maybe I would if you stopped acting like some lovesick chick," he snapped and turned to the window, saying nothing else for the rest of the ride.

Kaila bristled at his words, but had to admit that she _was_ pretty disoriented. She'd been wondering the whole ride why Heero hadn't said _one_ word to her nor offered to sit next to her. Not to mention the fact that Quatre had her listening to _classical music_ of all things…

Duo, seated next to her, was also a little out of sorts because of his misadventures with the advisors. "Hey Quatre, can't you drive any faster?" he muttered. Quatre grunted in reply.

"He's going the speed limit, Duo," Heero supplied. Wufei and Duo rolled their eyes and Kaila angrily threw her hands in the air.

Quatre sighed and checked on the people in his car in the rear-view mirror. "Hey, Cheyenne, is your seatbelt buckled?" he called back.

"Huh? Oh no, it isn't. Hmm, I can't find it…"

"You can share mine if you want."

"What, really Trowa?"

"Sure."

"Is that safe?" Quatre asked.

"I'm pretty sure it is," Trowa replied.

"Thanks, Trowa. I'm snug as a bug on a rug, now!" Cheyenne grinned.

Wufei snorted.

Kaila sighed.

Duo huffed.

Trowa coughed.

Heero yawned.

"Stop making all those noises!" Quatre was clearly getting a little frazzled.

"Hey, Quatre, I think you missed the turn," Heero told him.

"What?" Duo snapped. "Ah, man. Now we have to drive ten miles out of our way just to turn around!"

"Just calm down and drive, Quatre," Trowa responded.

"Okay, Trowa," Quatre answered. There was silence for a little bit until Cheyenne noticed that they were listening to a classical station.

"Hey, are we listening to Mozart?" she asked. Immediately the music argument started again and Quatre lost it.

"Stop all this fighting! We shouldn't be fighting at all!" he screamed. "You know what? Never mind, we're not listening to _anything_!" He abruptly shut the radio off.

"Geez, I was just asking a simple question! I _like_ Mozart…" Cheyenne mumbled.

"This is what I was afraid of…" Kaila muttered.

"This'll be one interesting night…" Duo added. The group rode on in silence the rest of the way.

**(It gets worse…)**

**(*)**

When they finally arrived at the movie theater, everyone piled out of the Navigator fairly quickly.

"That was the longest and most boring ride of my life!" Kaila complained.

"Then you haven't been to many places," Wufei snapped.

"You just _had_ to open your big mouth," Duo told Cheyenne, who shrugged.

"How was I supposed to know you guys weren't classical music lovers?"

"All I want to know is who passed gas, because that was truly inconsiderate," Trowa remarked as he and Quatre sprayed the Navigator with some of Kaila's perfume.

"Come on guys, we shouldn't be fighting at all," Quatre told them.

"No kidding," Duo and Cheyenne said at the same time. "Jinx!" they said again at the same time, locking pinkies and laughing. Kaila and Wufei rolled their eyes at their childishness and walked to the ticket window where Heero was already standing.

Kaila checked her watch. "Hmm, well it's 9:30 so we missed the last _Shaft_."

"And the last _X-Men_," Duo added.

"How the heck did it get so late?" Cheyenne questioned.

"And why does this movie theater stop showing movies so early?" Kaila asked.

"_Big Momma's House_ isn't playing today," Heero replied.

"Aw, _What Lies Beneath_ started twenty minutes ago!" Cheyenne whined.

"And _Scary Movie_ started forty-five minutes ago…" Wufei added.

"What's wrong?" Trowa asked as he and Quatre joined them.

"The only movie we can catch on time is _Pokémon, The Movie 2000_," Heero informed them. Everyone but Quatre groaned at his news.

"Well, I am not about to go back home," Kaila said and everyone nodded.

"Aw, c'mon guys! Let's make the best of it, okay?" Quatre told them as he headed to the ticket window. "Seven for _Pokémon, The Movie_, please."

"You're paying for _all_ of us?" Cheyenne asked.

Kaila rolled her eyes at her friend. "The guy drives a Navigator and you doubt he has money?"

Cheyenne laughed. "Oh, nice to have friends with connections…"

"Yeah, maybe I can get him to pay for my lunch for the rest of the year too," Kaila joked as they waited for Quatre.

The ticket lady gave them all a funny look as she handed him the _Pokémon_ tickets. "I knew times were bad, but sheesh," she commented.

Trowa looked closer at the ticket lady. "Noin?" he asked.

Their old friend nodded. "Yep, you caught me. This is my part-time job. Don't laugh, okay?" she warned them. The guys nodded.

"As long as you don't tell anyone about this," Duo sighed as he accepted his ticket and shook it at her.

"Let's get this over with," Wufei replied and pushed through the doors. They walked inside and everyone immediately headed to the snack counter. Heero ordered popcorn and a soda and so did Kaila and Quatre. Duo, on the other hand, ordered nachos, two hot dogs, a large popcorn, a large soda and a cinnamon bun.

"Please don't sit by me," Kaila muttered as the four walked into the movie.

"Guys, hurry up!" Duo shouted back to Wufei, Cheyenne and Trowa.

"Like you're in a hurry?" Cheyenne replied and turned to the counter. "Um, I think I'll try the onion rings…" she started, but then the snack guy turned around to smile at her.

"Hi, my name is Slim Shady, how can I help you?" he asked. Cheyenne immediately lost all interest in the onion rings and ordered popcorn instead.

Trowa, behind her, studied the menu seriously. "Hmm, I want popcorn but I don't like it without butter. But I can't have butter so should I have the popcorn plain? But that never tastes right so I think I'll just…"

"Will you just order something already?" Wufei snapped. Trowa glared at him and ordered a Coke. Wufei glared back and ordered his popcorn as Trowa and Cheyenne walked toward the movie. "Double butter," he added without thinking.

**(*)**

Heero sat on the inside seat next to wall and Kaila sat beside him. Duo was on her left busy smacking away at the food. Quatre sat in the middle, mildly interested in the movie and Trowa was right next to him. Beside him was Cheyenne and Wufei completed their row in the aisle seat. At first, everything seemed to go well. All seven were reasonably quiet-except for Duo getting his grub on-as they watched the movie that after a while actually turned out to be interesting. But everything went downhill when someone from behind Duo commented on his noisy smacking.

"Hey! Calm that down a bit!" some college kid snapped rudely.

"Hey, I have a right to eat, don't I?" Duo retorted.

"Yeah!" Kaila added, sticking up for him. "Just sit back and watch the movie, aiight?" she snapped.

"Well, I can't hear what they're saying with all the noise he's making!" the guy replied.

"Do you want me to translate?" Kaila remarked. "Pikachu said, 'Pika. Pika, pikachuuu'." A bunch of people in the crowd laughed and the guy shut up after that.

"Please, no more fighting," Quatre told Kaila who rolled her eyes for the thousandth time that night.

As Cheyenne finished up her fruit punch she started to shiver a little and Trowa, next to her, noticed. "You're cold?" he asked.

She nodded. "Just a little."

"Well, I don't really have anything to give you, but I can-"

"You don't have to," Wufei interrupted, guessing his friend's intent. "Here, woman." He took off his Chinese style jacket and placed it over her shoulders.

"Warmer?" Trowa asked Cheyenne, who nodded.

"Yes. Thank you, Wufei." Wufei pretended to be engrossed in the movie and didn't answer her. Cheyenne sighed and ate some more of her popcorn, then someone got up from the row behind them and bumped Duo in the head.

"Oops, sorry…" the rude guy from before said.

Duo shot daggers at him with his eyes. "Somehow I don't think that was an accident," he muttered.

"Don't worry about it, Duo. We shouldn't be fighting at all," Quatre told him.

Things were calm for a little while as Duo finished his food and quieted down. Everyone actually appeared to be concentrating on the _Pokémon_ movie until about halfway through when Cheyenne fell asleep. Her head fell onto Trowa's shoulder and he looked at her in surprise for a minute.

"Cheyenne?" he whispered, then looked at her face. "Ah, she's asleep." He relaxed and placed his arm around her for support.

Kaila looked at the two of them and sighed. '_At least Cheyenne gets her wish. Hmm, maybe…_' "Hey, Heero. I'm kind of cold," she told him.

Heero acted as if he couldn't tear his eyes away from the movie. "Change seats with Duo, then. You must be under the A/C," he replied.

Kaila huffed and laid a hand on her cheek. "Nevermind, I'll be okay," she replied.

Duo glanced over at her and realized that she was having a pretty rotten time, but he couldn't tell Heero to straighten up because then she would hear, so he just sat uncomfortably next to her. Beside him, Quatre laughed at something in the movie and Duo looked at him like he was crazy. '_Is he actually enjoying this?_' he wondered.

Trowa only smiled at his blonde friend and held Cheyenne closer, wondering if she'd let him do that on the way home, too. It wasn't that he thought of her as anything more than a friend, but she _was_ cute…

Meanwhile, as Wufei continued to try to focus on the movie, he wondered what had happened to put him in such a bad mood. Was it Cheyenne that was bothering him? Nah, she was a bit too flighty for his taste anyway. He was sure he wasn't interested in her. Maybe it was the fact that Trowa was scoring major brownie points even though she was asleep? Or maybe it was simply the fact that someone had passed gas in the Navigator, he wasn't sure.

Still, for some reason, he started feeling kind of bad that he had ruined every moment that Trowa and Cheyenne had started together in the Navigator and in the theatre too. He guessed that the only reason he felt bad was because Trowa had agreed that they were friends earlier. Because of that, Wufei uncharacteristically decided that he would try to make up for his bad attitude and help things go smoother for the two. After all, Trowa was obviously interested in her… **(Not really, Wufei…)**

"Popcorn?" he asked Trowa and handed it to him. Trowa nodded his thanks as he ate some. At about the same moment, both guys remembered that Trowa said he couldn't eat butter…and Wufei's popcorn had extra butter. Trowa immediately clutched his throat.

"Uh…Trowa?" Wufei asked, a little concerned.

"B-b-b-butter!" Trowa gasped and jumped up out of his chair. "You gave me b-b-b-butter!" Cheyenne was jolted awake and everyone in the theatre turned to Trowa who looked like he had a nervous tick.

Wufei didn't know what to say. "Um…I forgot?"

"Y-Y-Yeah, right!"

"Hey! You didn't have to accept the stuff!" Wufei snapped back. Trowa grabbed his head and ran out of the theatre.

"What happened?" Cheyenne asked Wufei who only shrugged in reply. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. "Did I fall asleep?" she asked. He nodded. "Oh…" She yawned and dozed off again. This time her head landed on Wufei's shoulder and he wasn't sure what to do at all. He was about to push her off and back to her chair until he noticed her face. It looked peaceful and there was a cute little smile on it…and something in it reminded him of Nataku. He finally decided that it was his job as a "superior male" to make sure the "little lady" was comfortable and so he awkwardly put his arm around her shoulder the way he had seen Trowa do it.

Shortly after that incident, the rude guy came back and bumped Duo in the head again. "Whoops, sorry dude," he laughed.

"Grrr," Duo answered. He threw some popcorn from Quatre's bag behind him, making sure it hit the guy directly in the face.

"Hey!" the guy yelled.

"Oops, my bad," Duo laughed.

The guy threw an apple at Duo's head and it knocked him out of his chair into the row in front of them.

"_Hey_!" Kaila yelled, throwing some more popcorn behind her.

"FOOD FIGHT!" someone yelled and immediately everyone was throwing food at one another. The song _Ultra Relax_ suddenly came on as the food fight continued.** (You truly have to hear this song to believe it…a cross between polka, r&b, and techno! Whew!)** Duo stood on the top of his chair throwing whatever he could find. Only Heero calmly continued to eat and watch the movie. Wufei considered knocking Cheyenne off his arm and grabbing some food himself but for some odd reason he and Heero were the only ones not getting beamed with food, so he stayed where he was and ate some more popcorn. (Still, his arm had fallen asleep and Cheyenne was drooling, so Nataku or not, he was still debating on shoving her off…)

"We shouldn't be fighting at all!" Quatre cried, ducking under his chair.

In the midst of it all, Trowa returned to see Cheyenne lying on Wufei's shoulder. "Oh, so _that's_ what you were trying to do, huh?" he asked, annoyed. "Why didn't you just ask me? I would have pushed her onto your shoulder if that's what you wanted!"

Wufei shook his head and Cheyenne popped awake. "No, she was sleepy, so I-"

"Why don't you just admit you like her? All of this could have been avoided!"

Wufei narrowed his eyes. "Whatever man, I think you had too much butter."

"Don't you know what butter does to me?"

"Turns you into a werewolf?"

"It gives me hives, you bastard!" Trowa leapt onto Wufei, wailing away.

"I'm a legitimate child, you jerk!" Wufei replied.

They began to fight each other in the middle of the aisle and the food fight in the theatre gradually turned into an all out brawl. Trowa hit Wufei with a strong left hook in the face. Wufei stumbled back a bit and then punched Trowa straight in the eye with his right fist. Trowa shook off the hit and rammed his head into Wufei's gut, preceding to body slam him. Wufei flipped out of Trowa's hold and then elbow dropped him in the stomach. Once Trowa got his breath back, he grabbed Wufei's neck and held him in a chokehold.

"Say you did it on purpose! Say it!" he growled. Wufei clawed at Trowa's arms and then flipped him over his shoulder. Trowa landed on his back on the ground.

"You're crazy!" Wufei shouted back. Trowa kicked a leg out and Wufei fell to the floor and then they began to fiercely wrestle.

"ALL RIGHT!" Duo yelled, throwing some candy around. "Now that's a _real_ food fight!" he laughed and pointed at Wufei and Trowa.

Quatre was beside Cheyenne in a flash. "Oh no, they're fighting over you?"

Cheyenne shook her head in disbelief. "Um, I think they're fighting over popcorn, Quatre…" she answered.

Quatre held a hand to his head and yelled at the two guys. "HEY! We shouldn't be fighting at all!" But it was a bit too late for Quatre's warnings. Trowa and Wufei were well into their fight, Duo was punching the guy who'd bumped him earlier; Kaila splashed the guy's girlfriend with her soda and then jumped on her for talking noise; Cheyenne turned around and backslapped some guy who tried to get fresh and even Quatre had to defend himself when the same guy tried to take his anger out on him. Quatre simply gave the guy an uppercut to the jaw and he fell quickly. From then on, he and Cheyenne were fighting people back to back. As the food soared and fists flew, the noise in the theatre grew to such a peak that the movie could no longer be heard.

Suddenly a single gunshot sounded and everyone screamed and ducked under the chairs for cover. Heero was the only one left standing with popcorn in his left hand and a raised gun in his right.

"What does one man have to do to watch _Pokémon_ in peace?" he snapped.

Kaila leaned her head forward on her seat and then proceeded to hit her head on it over and over again while Heero calmly sat back down to watch the movie.

**(*)**

"And stay out!" the manager yelled, slamming the door behind them.

"Dude, we were set up, I promise," Duo mumbled.

"I can't believe we got kicked out of a movie theater," Cheyenne sighed, standing outside the theater next to Kaila.

"I can! Everyone was acting like complete idiots!" Kaila snapped. "Not to mention this psycho over here!" she added, waving a hand at Heero. "I'm surprised we weren't arrested!"

"As long as my sisters don't find out about this…" Quatre supplied.

As if on cue, a guy from the local newspaper came and snapped their picture. "This is great! "Local delinquents hold up a movie theater"!" he laughed and ran off.

"Want me to grab him?" Duo asked, ready to run the press guy down. Quatre shook his head and sighed wearily.

Trowa patted his shoulder. "Everything will turn out all right, Quatre."

Heero, leaning against the wall of the theater, appeared to notice Kaila for the first time that night. "Hey, that's a Japanese shirt you're wearing. Do you know what that symbol means?" he asked her.

Kaila held her hand up at him. "Oh, no. Oh no no no no NO! Don't you try to talk to me _now_ when you've had all night!" she snapped. Heero looked at her as if he had no idea what she was talking about which only made Kaila angrier. "That does it! I'm going home!" She began to walk off.

"Um, Kaila? My car's the other way," Quatre told her.

Kaila didn't even turn around. "I am _not_ going home with you people! I'm catching the bus! Shy, you comin' or what?" she called back.

"Um…" Cheyenne stalled for a minute, looking from Trowa's black eye to Wufei's bloody lip and then deciding to go. "Um, well, I can't let her go alone…" she explained as she backed up from the five guys who all looked at her with indescribable expressions on their faces. "Um, it was actually kind of fun! We'll all look back on this night and laugh, I promise," she stuttered. When no one answered, she sighed and ran off after Kaila but then stopped and ran back to Wufei.

"Here's your jacket, Wufei. Thank you…" she said quickly. "Thanks for the ride and the movie, Quatre! Trowa, all you need is Benadryl and I promise your hives will go right away. Duo, call me! Um…bye, Heero." Cheyenne waved a little to everyone before running back to her best friend. The guys watched them go.

"Women and trouble are one and the same…" Wufei murmured.

Quatre crossed his arms. "Do you see where fighting gets you? No where," he huffed. "I hope you're all happy."

"Quatre, don't even start that right now, okay?" Duo snapped.

"Let's go to Taco Bell. I want a chalupa…" Heero replied.

Trowa sighed. "Let's just go home…"

**(Sheesh, some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed.)**


	6. Chapter 6 Relena Returns

**6) Relena Returns**

On Monday around two in the afternoon, the five guys sat at their table, each doing his own thing. Heero typed away on his laptop, Duo chowed down on his lunch, Trowa read a book between bites, Quatre worked on an essay for his English class and Wufei listened to a song in his portable CD player.

"So everything's cool between you two, right?" Quatre ventured, turning to Wufei and Trowa for a response. They both gave him a strange look.

"What are you talking about?" Wufei finally snapped.

"You know…the whole movie thing?" Quatre asked cautiously. Wufei rolled his eyes and Trowa nodded.

"It's squashed. The butter thing was a mistake, I guess," Trowa replied.

"Yeah, and I wasn't trying to move in on the woman, Trowa. She's all yours," Wufei added.

Trowa gave him an odd look. "I'm not interested in Cheyenne like that."

"Oh, whatever, it doesn't matter then."

"Are you done listening to my Prince CD, Wufei?" Duo asked.

"Nah, I'm on "Diamonds and Pearls", right now."

"It's not your CD, Duo…" Heero reminded him.

Duo scratched his head. "It's not?"

**(*)**

Cheyenne had spent most of her weekend listening to Kaila rant on and on about the craziness that was Heero and then talking to Duo who updated her on the latest school happenings though they weren't really much. She also detailed the entire movie night to Yumi who thought all of the guys were hilarious and wanted to meet them for herself. Cheyenne promised to introduce them at the café on Monday.

When she took a break in-between class, she met Yumi and Kaila for lunch. Kaila, after MUCH argument, allowed Cheyenne to drag her over to the guy's table.

"I'm only sitting with y'all 'cause no one else in here speaks English…and the ones who do are just…weird," Kaila explained as she down next to Duo to give Heero the evil eye; not that he noticed.

Cheyenne smiled helplessly and introduced Yumi to the group. For some odd reason Yumi took an immediate liking to Quatre. She sat next to him and gave him her prettiest smile. Quatre cast a wary glance at her green-colored hair even though it was combed down into a bob and not the Mohawk Cheyenne had fist seen. Yumi opened conversation and soon the two were engrossed in a deep conversation over his essay.

Cheyenne made Duo slide over so she could sit on the end across from Heero. "Everything back to normal?" she asked.

"As normal as it gets around here, Cuz," Duo smiled. Cheyenne grinned and was about to say something to Trowa when she heard a commotion coming from the other side of the café. She turned her head to see what was going on and the rest of the table except for Heero looked with her.

They saw a girl about their age with long honey-brown hair, blue eyes and a clipboard in one hand entering the café. Bodyguards surrounded her and she seemed to be fighting with them. "I just want to eat in here like a normal person, okay?" she told them but they all frowned in reply. The girl sighed and looked towards Cheyenne's table, then smiled and walked towards them. When she reached their table she smiled down at Heero. "Heero…" she murmured.

Heero's fingers immediately stopped typing. "Relena…" he replied.

Kaila rolled her eyes and laid her head on the table. '_Of course he has a girlfriend, why didn't I think of that…?'_ she asked herself.

Heero and the girl named Relena continued to stare at each other until Duo cleared his throat. "You got something for us, Relena?" he asked.

Relena tore her eyes away from Heero and glanced at Duo. "Yes, it's time that you guys-" She stopped abruptly when she noticed Cheyenne, Kaila and Yumi sitting at the table as well. "Oh…um…well, I'll explain later. Meet me in Earth Hall at approximately 1600 hours."

"Aw man, that's the time Batman comes on," Duo complained.

Relena smiled at him. "Sacrifices have to made, Heero."

"I'm Duo," he muttered.

"Um, right, I mean Duo," she quickly amended. Duo rolled his eyes and she turned back to Heero. "Heero…Heero would you mind stepping outside with me? There's something I'd like to discuss with you in private." Heero nodded, closed his laptop and left the café without further discussion.

Cheyenne blinked after they left. "Wow, what was _that_ all about?"

"Yeah, who's the chick?" Yumi added.

"Um, her name's Relena Darlian and she's the daughter of the President of Medora University. She's a pretty important figure around here," Quatre explained.

"Why all the bodyguards?" Cheyenne asked.

"Probably to protect her from Heero," Kaila mumbled.

Duo patted her shoulder. "Sorry, Kaila. I should have told you sooner. Relena's got Heero wrapped around her little finger."

"And vice-versa," Trowa added. Wufei snorted and picked furiously at his salad.

"Hard for you to believe, eh Wufei?" Cheyenne laughed. He didn't answer her and Quatre quickly leapt in the conversation again.

"The bodyguards have to be around her all the time because there's been various death threats on her life recently.".

Yumi shrugged. "But why? She's just some university president's daughter. I don't see what the big deal is."

For some reason the four guys at the table seemed to exchange a glance and at that moment decide the subject was dropped.

"Hey, that salad looks pretty good, Wufei. I think I'll go get one myself," Duo leapt up and headed towards the salad bar.

"And I think I need some ice cream," Trowa added, following Duo.

"Huh?" Cheyenne asked.

Quatre hastily followed them. "Um, oops! I'm all out of soda!"

"What the-?" Yumi questioned.

All three girls turned to Wufei, the only one left at the table. He seemed to find his salad and the Prince CD especially interesting all of a sudden.

"Okay, Wufei. What's going on?" Kaila asked.

He looked up from his salad and studied each of the girls in turn; then laughed. "Do you expect me to tell you _anything,_ huh?" he snapped. When they all glared at him, he shut off his CD and stood. "I…need more Ranch dressing." He got up to head over to the salad bar with Duo. The girls sat in silence for about a full minute.

"O-kay…what the heck was that all about?" Yumi asked.

"I dunno…" Cheyenne murmured.

Kaila shrugged and ate some of her lasagna. "Well, if it has to do with that Relena girl then I really don't care."

Yumi nodded but Cheyenne was lost in thought for the rest of lunch…and the guys never did return to the table.

**(Rude, huh?)**


	7. Chapter 7 Earth Hall

**7) Earth Hall**

**(Here's where things get weird…)**

Cheyenne stretched her tired bones as she emerged into the sunlight from her Voice & Diction class. Learning phonetics for a whole hour had pretty much worn her out and all she wanted to do was head back to her room for a nap. As she walked to her dorm though, she noticed Quatre out of the corner of her eye. **(His song, _Brave Eyes_ suddenly began to play of course…)** _'Hey, there's Quatre. I guess I'll go say hi_.'

Quatre caught sight of her and smiled but then immediately frowned, turned and walked the other way.

Cheyenne scratched her head. '_That was weird._' "Quatre! Hey! Hey Quatre! QUATRE! QUATRE I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR MEEEEEE!" she called to him.

Quatre hesitated, slowed, and finally turned around. It would have been impossible to pretend that he _hadn't_ heard her yells. '_Dang! Dang, dang, dang!_' kept going through his head while he outwardly smiled at her approach. "Um, hi Cheyenne. How's it goin'?" he asked aloud.

"What's up, Quatre?" Cheyenne replied once she reached him. "Dude, why are y'all giving us the snob treatment all of a sudden?"

"What…what do you mean?" he asked a little nervously.

She put her hands on her hips. "C'mon Q. Y'all been avoiding us since the café. I mean, Wufei hasn't said one mean thing to me all day!"

Quatre tensed. "I guess he's just having a bad day."

"Quatre…"

"Hey, Master Quatre, is there a problem here?"

Cheyenne and Quatre turned to see at least twenty Arab men dressed in soccer uniforms behind them.

Quatre blushed. "No, no, Rashid, I'm fine."

"Cool," the bearded man nodded. "All right guys, blue vs. red today!"

"YEAAAH!"

"Random…" Cheyenne raised an eyebrow as the Arab men all ran off towards the soccer field she supposed. She wondered if Quatre had some kind of weird kinky connection to the soccer team, but quickly shoved that thought out of her mind. She turned back to him and narrowed her eyes in suspicion instead. "You're hiding something, Quatre Raberba Winner, and I intend to find out what it is!"

"Um, no I'm not!" He paused to give her a curious look. "When'd you learn my whole name, anyway?"

"Don't you try to change the subject on me! Now c'mon!" Cheyenne grabbed his hand and pulled him along.

"Um, where are you going?" Quatre asked, resisting a bit.

"The same place you are, Earth Hall!"

Quatre sighed. "Please understand, Cheyenne. This is a private thing the guys and I are attending. I can't allow you to go."

Cheyenne studied him and finally sighed. "You're right, Quatre. I shouldn't force my way into things." She let go of his hand and gestured toward Earth Hall. "Go right ahead. I won't stop you or go with you."

"I'm glad you understand, Cheyenne. You're so kind." He sped off towards Earth Hall with a smile. Cheyenne watched him until he was out of sight, blew her bangs out of her face, checked her watch, looked around to make sure no one was watching and then followed him.

"And away we go…"

**(*)**

Earth Hall was the only hall on campus named after a planet but not used for a dorm. The six-story building was where the university held most of its functions such as dinner parties, pep rallies, luncheons, organization meetings and dance parties. There was even a swimming pool on the bottom floor. Needless to say, with everything like that going on at once it was easy to get confused and lost inside. And lost was what Cheyenne was after turning several corners in the building and dodging tons of people left and right. After the fifth dead end, she sighed wearily.

"Doesn't this building have a map or something?" she muttered. After rounding yet another corner, however, she literally bumped into Kaila. "Ow! Huh? Kaye?"

Kaila looked at her friend with wide light brown eyes. "Shy, um, what are you doin' here?"

Cheyenne looked around the building for any sign of the blonde boy. "I was trying to follow Quatre but he lost me somehow," she answered in irritation.

Kaila nodded quickly. "I know, Duo ditched me in here, too. You'd think that after all me and you went through at the movies on Friday," she glanced around as she spoke, "that they owe it to us be involved in everything they do."

Cheyenne raised an eyebrow at her friend's warped reasoning. "Uhh, right," she agreed anyway.

Kaila nodded and pulled Cheyenne over to an elevator. "C'mon. They must be upstairs or something." They grabbed an elevator and rode it up to the fourth floor but as soon as they walked out they ran into Yumi who was just getting on. She placed her hands on her hips and shook her head.

"Nope. They're not on this floor, either," she told them. When she saw Kaila and Cheyenne's faces, she rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know, I was looking for the guys too. Somehow I lost track of Trowa, don't ask me how. I thought I'd be able to follow his spikes everywhere."

"Aw, so now what?" Cheyenne sighed.

Yumi pointed up. "The sixth floor. Follow me."

The three girls got off the elevator on the top floor and looked around. They appeared to be in some sort of computer lab only no one else was there and the place was dark. "What's this?" Cheyenne asked Yumi, who smiled.

"It's what it looks like, a computer lab, only no one comes here anymore. Most students have computer access directly from their dorms now so there's no need for this public one. Most kids have forgotten about it, I think."

"So…" Kaila wiped the dust off a chair and sat down. "What does this have to do with the guys?"

Yumi leant over Kaila and turned the computer on. As it booted up, she straightened and put her hands on her hips. "There are certain files on the computer that allow you to find anyone in the school…if you know how to get to 'em."

"You mean hack into the school files?" Cheyenne asked. "We don't know how to do that, Yumi."

"Sure we do," Kaila giggled.

"Awesome!" Yumi grinned.

Cheyenne blinked at her best friend. "I thought you hated computers, Kaye?"

"Yep, and they hate me cuz I can hack into almost anything." She began typing furiously on the keyboard.

"You learn something new every day…" Cheyenne muttered as she pulled up a chair.

Kaila continued to type in the computer until it gave a beep. "Wow, okay, here it is, the password for faculty access. Shy, give me five one-digit numbers, quick."

"Um…five, three, two, four, and one?"

"Cool. Yumi give me a letter."

"Q, for Quatre," Yumi sighed.

"There's something strange about that boy…" Kaila murmured as she put the letter in. The computer beeped, trying to process the password, and she immediately knocked on the screen three times and then typed her name in on the keyboard. The screen went black.

"Umm…" Cheyenne began.

"Shh," Kaila hushed her.

Cheyenne sighed but then gasped when the screen lit back up, showing they were in the school files. "Wha-? How'd you do that?"

Kaila only smiled. "Just lucky, I guess. Now let's see here, this seems promising…" She clicked on a _Student Finder_ icon and when the screen came up, she typed in _Duo Maxwell._ Her cursor turned into an hourglass as it loaded until a map showed up on the screen. The cursor then proceeded to pinpoint Duo's location.

"He's in this building all right," Yumi murmured, watching the map. "Room zero, basement level. Got him!"

Cheyenne looked at the screen with narrowed eyes. "Is this legal? I mean, are they supposed to have this "student finder" thingy on here at all?"

"Dunno," Yumi shrugged. "But now that we know where the guys are, we can figure out what the heck's goin' on."

"But no-one except for faculty members are allowed on the basement level," Kaila reminded her. "We can't just barge down there."

Yumi sighed, "Then we'll do it the old fashioned way." She pointed upwards. "I'm gonna go to them through the air vent!"

Cheyenne and Kaila went mute, staring at their new friend.

"You're kidding right?" Kaila asked slowly.

Cheyenne shook her head at her and smirked. "Yeah girl, that stuff only works in movies and short-stories written by bored college students."

"What can we lose by trying, huh?"

Cheyenne shrugged and laid her chin on her chair. "Is this really worth it? I mean, maybe we're not supposed to know what's goin' on for a reason. Maybe they're protecting us or something…" she trailed off. The three girls sat in silence and then looked at each other. The look in their eyes was the same.

"Let's do it," Kaila said. The other two girls laughed and nodded.

"I have a feeling we're gonna be friends for a long time," Yumi added. Cheyenne and Kaila smiled as she prepared to hop in the air vent. Actually it was a laborious process because she had to get on both of their shoulders and after much grunting they finally just shoved her in the thing.

"OW!" Yumi complained.

"Suck it up!" Kaila called up after her.

"Here!" Cheyenne threw a walkie-talkie into the air vent. Kaila raised an eyebrow and Yumi stuck her head out of the vent, confused. Cheyenne frowned. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You just carry walkie-talkies around on a daily basis?" Yumi asked.

Cheyenne laughed nervously. "Of course not, they're…they're for class."

"Whatever," Kaila smirked and waved Yumi on with her hands. "Good luck, girl!"

"Thanks," Yumi replied and she was gone.

Kaila returned to the computer. "So what else do they have in these files, I wonder?"

Cheyenne sat beside her and watched as her friend searched the school files. "Hey, what's that?" She pointed at an icon that said _Student Info._

"Dunno, let's find out," Kaila used the mouse to click on it.

_Which student?_ blinked on the screen and Kaila shrugged and typed in her name. After a moment, this appeared on the screen:

_Stats on Shields, Kaila * * _

_(Two stars)  
Full name: Kaila Lynnette Shields (female)  
Freshmen; Pluto Hall  
D.O.B.: September 25, 1981, age 18  
Physical description: 5'6" with dark blue-violet hair and light brown eyes  
Personality: bright and intelligent but stubborn  
Possible Place: * computer literate (hacker style)  
Special Skill: plays a mean harmonica  
Note: able to get the job done at all costs.  
-Ups: leadership abilities; "failure" isn't in vocabulary; meticulous; will stick up immediately for comrades  
-Downs: temper; stubborn; may not follow orders if doesn't like them  
Possible GWP? No  
Possible GWE? Yes * *_

"What the heezi?" Kaila asked after looking at her file. "What _is_ all of this? I was expecting grades or something, not this weird stuff."

"I wonder what "GWP" and "GWE" mean," Cheyenne wondered.

"Yeah…and hey, I don't have a temper! And I _don't_ play the harmonica!" Cheyenne laughed. "Obviously you do. Give it up, girl, I know now!"

Kaila rolled her eyes at her friend and frowned. "I wonder who has all of this information on us and for what?"

"Yeah," Yumi piped up from her walkie-talkie. Both girls jumped at her sudden words and then Cheyenne reached into her folder and pulled out the other walkie-talkie.

"You've been following what we found, Yumi?" Cheyenne asked.

"Sort of," she replied.

"Where are you at?" Kaila wanted to know.

There was silence and then some static. "Um…I'd guess I'm on the third floor."

"Why's that?"

"Call me crazy, but it might be because of this big black number that says "three"," Yumi laughed. "What'd you guys find out?" Kaila explained about all the information they had found on her. "Weird…" she murmured.

"Hey, see what it says about me!" Cheyenne urged Kaila, who nodded and typed her name in the computer. In a few minutes this appeared on the screen:

_Stats on Weatherstone, Cheyenne * * * _

_(Three stars)  
Full name: Cheyenne Lashon Weatherstone (female)  
Freshmen; Mercury Hall  
D.O.B.: December 12, 1981, age 18  
Physical description: 5'3" with reddish-brown hair and gray eyes  
Personality: intelligent and friendly, but "weird"  
Possible Place: * pilot potential, albeit a little clumsy  
Special Skill: dancing ability is a plus  
Note: uncanny talent for bringing people together  
-Ups: will follow orders to the letter; never gives up; willing to try new things; chipper personality; always has a back-up plan  
-Downs: clumsy; insecure; we're not sure how she'll react under pressure  
Possible GWP? Yes * * *  
Possible GWE? Yes * *_

"Clumsy? Weird?" Cheyenne huffed. "What do they know anyway?"

"Well at least you're chipper!" Kaila laughed.

Cheyenne rolled her eyes and studied the screen. "But who's the "we" in this? Right there it says: "_We're_ not sure how she'll react under pressure". Who are these people with all this info on us?"

"And what do they mean by pilot potential?" Kaila wondered. "And why all of this stuff about following orders?"

"And what's up with the stars?" Cheyenne added. "Is this Star Search or something? I demand my three and a quarter stars!"

"Hey! Read mine, read mine!" Yumi piped up.

Kaila smiled a little at Cheyenne's earlier comment as she typed Yumi's first name in. "Umm…what's your last name, Yumi?"

"Yamashita."

"Okay. Hmm, it says…"

_Stats on Yamashita, Yumi * *_

_(Two stars)  
Full name: Yumi Sachiko Yamashita (female)  
Sophomore; Mercury Hall  
D.O.B.: April 22, 1980, age 19  
Physical description: 5'4" with dark green hair and reddish-brown eyes  
Personality: intelligent with a mind like a steel trap but brash  
Possible Place: * stealth/grace make for excellent espionage potential  
Special Skill: her artwork is a must-see  
Note: knowledge of several languages is a plus  
-Ups: follows orders (more or less); ready to try anything at anytime; holds no grudges  
-Downs: headstrong; rash; probably won't think a plan the whole way through; troublemaker  
Possible GWP? No  
Possible GWE? Yes * *_

"Wow, what are we getting ourselves into?" Cheyenne asked after Kaila read Yumi her stats.

"Well, I guess they're right about the espionage part," Yumi told them. "I mean, I _am_ climbing through an air vent right now…"

"They're probably right about you being a rash, headstrong troublemaker too," Kaila laughed.

"Oh…go play your harmonica…" Yumi snapped and Kaila growled into the walkie-talkie.

Cheyenne laughed and urged Kaila back to the keyboard. "Come on! Let's see what else we can find out!"

**(*)**

"So the situation has gotten worse?" Trowa asked Relena from his place against the wall.

Relena nodded. "We think they're getting restless, guys. I'm not sure that you'll _want_ to do this one alone."

Wufei spread his hands. "Well, isn't that why this silly school was built? So that you could train students to join us or whatever?"

"Yes, something like that," Relena replied. She and the five guys were sitting around a table-except for Trowa who was leaning against the wall-in the large sub-basement room in Earth Hall. (The song _Just Communication_ played in the background of course.) They'd been discussing certain secret information for a while now but Wufei was convinced that Relena was going around what she was really trying to say. The others in the room sensed it as well.

"Relena…what is it that you're not telling us?" Duo asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Huh?" Relena's eyes widened but she tried to hide it as she looked down at the table. "N-Nothing."

"Relena?" Quatre quickly caught on to the other guys' suspicions. "What's wrong? Has something out of the ordinary happened?"

"No…it's just…" Relena suddenly looked up with a determined look on her face. "It's just that we haven't found a pilot yet."

"You're kidding, right?" Heero asked. When she shook her head so did he.

"But there's plenty of potential in this school!" Duo exclaimed. "How could you _not_ find a pilot? This place is swarming with wanna-bes and fanatics!"

"We just haven't found one we think is suited for the job."

"Is the extra one really necessary?" Trowa asked slowly. "Frankly, I don't believe a new pilot is really needed for this particular mission."

"Actually, it would help immensely," Relena said. "The Shadow Walkers have the same sort of information as we do on the new Gundam. It's become imperative to the mission to have a pilot in the oncoming battle if they have a similar machine."

"Then let Heero fly it and call it a day," Wufei snapped. Everyone nodded except for Heero.

"I don't want to fly it," he replied calmly.

The guys stared.

"What?" Duo finally exploded. "Are you kidding?"

**(*)**

Yumi continued to listen in on the conversation from the rusty vent above them. She frowned and whispered what they were talking about to Kaila and Cheyenne through the walkie-talkie.

"What the heck?" Kaila's voice asked. "Shadow Walkers? Mission? Oncoming battle? What's all that mean?"

"Yeah, what's going on? This school was only built to train us to join them? But join 'em in what?" Cheyenne added.

"I don't know," Yumi whispered back. "I'm only half understanding this conversation myself. But I'll tell you this…we've stumbled onto something very big." As she tried to tune the conversation back in, she heard several voices coming from the walkie-talkie. "Um…where _are_ you guys anyway?"

"Uh…don't worry about it," Cheyenne replied.

Yumi snorted and carefully shifted her position on the vent. It creaked loudly and it was about at that moment she realized that she shouldn't have been sitting _on_ the thing at all! She prepared to move back into the air duct itself when the vent creaked some more and finally gave way. Yumi fell with a shriek into the basement room and directly into Wufei's lap.

"HUH?" he growled in surprise.

The rest of the guys jumped out of their chairs and looked around the room in suspicion. All of them had guns trained on Yumi who stared back at them all in surprise.

Quatre saw who it was and immediately put his 9 mm down. "Ah, Yumi…"

"Oh, it's just you," Duo set his machine gun rifle back on the floor. Trowa silently leant his sniper rifle against the wall and leant against it as well, crossing his arms. Only Heero continued to point his 9 mm at Yumi **(because he always has to point a gun at someone. hehe)**

"Are you a spy?" he wanted to know.

"Wha…what's up with you guys?" Yumi stuttered. "Pointing guns at people and talking about war-"

"Are you a spy?" Heero repeated, holding the gun closer to her head.

"Heero, c'mon. She's not a spy," Quatre assured him. Heero's eyes never left Yumi's face and she glared at him.

"No, I'm not a spy…not for the Shadow Walker people anyway. I was just trying to figure out what was wrong with you guys for myself," she said. Heero didn't reply and continued to point the gun at her.

"Heero…please," Relena beseeched him. Heero narrowed his eyes but immediately lowered his gun.

Wufei took the moment to push Yumi off his lap. "C'mon now, out of my personal space! Sheesh, out of all the laps you had to land on…" he muttered. "Where are your little girlfriends anyway? I know you didn't come here on your own." Yumi ignored him and looked around the room nervously.

Quatre walked to her side and half-smiled. "Forgive us, Yumi. We're a little jumpy," he explained.

Yumi managed to smile back at him and then turned to Relena. "S-So this school is all a front?"

"Well…"

"Ah hah! This school is just a front! And so are you, Rashida!" Cheyenne cried as she and Kaila burst into the room. Heero immediately whirled and trained his gun at her.

Kaila only rolled her eyes at him. "Put that thing down. I've read your file Heero Yuy and you're point-happy, not trigger-happy."

"And you play a mean harmonica," Heero responded, putting his gun down.

Kaila narrowed her eyes and twirled the keys to the room around her finger. "Didn't I tell you not to go bursting into rooms, Shy?" she asked.

"Hey, it makes things more dramatic, ya know?" Cheyenne turned to see everyone in the room staring at them and gave a little wave. "Um…hi again!"

Wufei, Quatre and Duo groaned. Trowa smiled a little and Heero…well Heero just stared.

"How did you guys get down here?" Duo asked.

Kaila gave a mischievous smile. "Oh, Ivan," she commanded.

Immediately a young guard appeared in the door, blushing red in the face. "I-I'm sorry…she…she promised me a date…I…forgive me, Miss Darlian!" he begged.

"You're fired," Relena responded.

Ivan sighed but turned and grinned at Kaila. "I'll call you tonight!" he grinned, giving her the thumbs up sign as he ran off.

Kaila rolled her eyes. "Men. So easy…"

Cheyenne noticed her other friend for the first time. "Yumi?"

"Shy-chan?"

"How did you get here?"

"I fell."

"Bummer."

"Um…who's Rashida?" Quatre spoke up.

Cheyenne turned to Relena and pointed. "This chick! That's right, we know all about you and your little façade, Rashida PEACECRAFT. You're not the president's daughter after all!" She paused for a minute. "Well, you _were_, but he's dead and has been for quite a long time! Explain that!"

Relena stared at Cheyenne before switching her gaze to Kaila and finally resting it on Yumi. "You're all in this together?" she asked.

"Yup," Kaila answered.

Relena sighed. "Come and sit down then. I will explain everything." She gestured to the table in front of her. "And my name is Relena."

"Whatever works," Kaila responded as she, Cheyenne and Yumi sat down at the table with the guys…and their guns.


	8. Chapter 8 Training

**8) Training**

"What do you mean you have to train us first?" Kaila wanted to know.

"Yeah," Yumi added. "Didn't we show enough ingenuity already just by getting down here?"

Relena, seated at the head of the table, shrugged. "I'm sorry, but you'll need more than ingenuity to be a part of our group."

"And what exactly is this "group"?" Kaila felt more than a little disconcerted. After all, she and her friends had listened to Relena ramble on and on about nothing for at least twenty minutes and now she was talking about some type of ridiculous training! They barely knew any details at all except that Relena and the guys were part of some "group", and that they could use the girls' skills, but they had to train in order to prove themselves first.

"I will explain everything after your training," Relena replied.

"What sort of training is this, Relita?" Cheyenne asked with a raised eyebrow.

Relena sighed at the misuse of her name and spread her hands on the table. "First, at 1500, there'll be sessions with Heero in the shooting gallery where you'll learn how to properly handle a gun. Then, at precisely 1600 hours, you'll head to Trowa who'll teach you acrobatic skills that may come in handy. After that, at 1800, martial arts lessons with Wufei-"

"Be prepared to work prodigiously hard," Wufei added with an evil grin.

"Prodigiously?" Cheyenne glared at him. "Did you use that word right?"

Relena cleared her throat and continued. "At 2000, after a short break of course, you will be sent to Quatre and myself to learn diplomatic tactics and strategies that can be used in battle. Then I'll let you know how you're doing and perhaps fill you in on what I expect out of you in the following weeks."

"Weeks?" Yumi groaned, not liking the sound of that.

"Sounds like a pretty full day…" Cheyenne trailed off, though she inwardly thought that the stuff might be fun.

Kaila raised an eyebrow. "Hey, how come Duo doesn't get to do anything?"

Relena smiled thinly. "He does. Duo may quite possibly have the hardest job of all." She turned to Cheyenne. "Your day will last a little longer. According to your file, you're the one with the pilot potential. Therefore after Quatre's tutelage, you must head over to the hangar with Duo where he will hopefully teach you how to fly."

"Ex-squeeze me? Fly?" Cheyenne squeaked, wondering what the heck it was that she'd be flying. '_A plane of some sort or maybe a jet?'_ She then narrowed her eyes at Relena. "Wait, what do you mean, "hopefully"? I'll learn…right Duo?" She turned to her cousin for encouragement.

Duo only shrugged helplessly. "I hope so, Cuz."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence…" she muttered and turned and looked at her friends. "So this means we have to spend our mornings in school and our afternoons "training" with these guys. Sounds tiring-"

"If you can't hang, leave," Wufei told her rudely.

Cheyenne stared hard at him. His gaze didn't waver and neither did hers. Finally, she set her jaw and narrowed her eyes. "I'm staying. If you guys need our help then I'll help and that's that."

"Same here," Yumi nodded.

"I'm wit' it, I'm wit' it," Kaila turned to Heero. "Just make sure you don't get in my way when you place a gun in my hand."

Heero's blank expression didn't change. "Okay."

Relena blew her bangs out of her face. "Let's get this started."

**(*)**

The girls began with the training immediately. The next day after classes they were all out of school uniforms awaiting Heero to show up at the shooting gallery. Kaila wore a fancy blouse with a blue-jean skirt and heels. Cheyenne went more casual with a white tank top, blue jeans and sneakers. Meanwhile, Yumi was punk with a black anarchy T-shirt, torn jeans and old school black and white Converse shoes.

They'd met up in the bottom level of Earth Hall and the place was completely empty except for them.

Yumi shook her head in disbelief as she looked around. "A shooting gallery? I didn't know we had _half_ of the stuff that's in this building!"

The other two nodded.

"Apparently we've been stuck in the dark ever since we got our acceptance letters," Kaila said just as Heero walked in with a Really Big Bag. He walked past them without speaking, then set the bag on the floor and unzipped it. Calmly, he took out a .35 caliber gun and handed it to Cheyenne, a sniper rifle for Yumi, and finally a machine gun rifle to Kaila. The girls looked at him, amazed, wondering where the heck he was getting all these weapons from.

Cheyenne turned her gun over in her hands. "Hey, how come my gun's smaller than everyone else's?"

Heero took three pairs of earmuffs out of his bag. "Because that's all you'll need. You'll have more than enough firepower from your mobile suit." He tossed ear muffs to them all. "Here."

"Mobile suit?" Cheyenne repeated.

Heero straightened, not bothering to explain as he walked over to the wall behind them and pressed a large red button. Immediately three targets appeared in front of the girls and he motioned for them to each stand in front of a target. "Behind the red line," he added as they lined up.

"Okay, now what?" Cheyenne asked as she turned the safety off; she at least knew _that_ much about guns.

Heero looked at her. "For you? Just point and shoot." Cheyenne nodded and turned to the target, holding the gun in both hands. "Keep your legs apart…" Heero advised. "Yeah…loosen your arms a bit, you're too stiff…okay…go."

Cheyenne squinted, aimed and fired. She recoiled a little then looked up to see where the bullet had hit. It didn't land anywhere near the bulls-eye but it did hit the upper left portion of the target. Yumi and Kaila cheered and she grinned. "Yay me!"

"Good," Heero responded. "Continue, but spread your legs a little more and relax your elbows." Cheyenne nodded and Heero turned to Yumi who faced the middle target.

"Do you know how to hold the sniper gun?" he asked. Yumi shook her head and Heero took the gun from her and demonstrated how to hold it. "You hold it near the face like this. Usually you'll be near the ground so the gun will be easier to mount, but for now I want you to hold it." He gave the gun back as he said so. "You'll probably be using more throwing-type weapons like daggers but you should practice with a gun anyway."

Yumi nodded and held the gun the way Heero had shown her, looking through the little spyglass towards the target. "Just point and shoot?"

"And watch out for the recoil," he added.

Yumi bit her lip and fired the gun. She recoiled a little but recovered quickly. The bullet hit directly next to the bulls-eye and Cheyenne cheered for her.

"All right! Go 'head, girl!" she crowed.

Yumi grinned. "This is gonna be no problem at all!"

"Good, continue," Heero nodded and walked over to Kaila who narrowed her eyes at his approach. He appeared not to notice or care about her glare, as always. "Do you know how to hold the gun?" he asked. When Kaila shook her head he showed her how to hold it. "Just like this." He held it down near his abdomen. Kaila nodded and did as he showed her. "And make sure you really hold onto it or you'll end up killing us all," he added.

Kaila smirked. "I'll be careful." She aimed carefully for the target, pulled the trigger but immediately jerked back and forth from the force of the gun's bullets. She barely held on while Yumi and Cheyenne ducked for cover and then she abruptly pointed the gun upwards and fell back onto her rear. When all was silent except for Kaila's heavy breathing, she only glared up at Heero who stood above her. "You better not have looked up my skirt when I fell!"

"Okay…" Heero muttered.

"I didn't even hit the target!" Kaila pointed angrily at the bullet holes riddled in the wall above the target. "I didn't get anywhere close!"

"Yeah," Heero nodded. "At least you never let go of the gun."

"Hmm…how about Kaila gets a _different_ gun from now on…" Cheyenne mumbled, still on her knees. Yumi uncovered her head and nodded.

Kaila placed the gun down and stood up. "Yeah, isn't there another gun better suited for me?"

"According to your file, the machine gun is best suited for you," Heero replied. "You're the tallest and the strongest of the three so just suck it up and try again."

"Fine," Kaila picked the gun back up and prepared to aim for the target.

"But for safety reasons we're going to move you into another room with four walls and Plexiglas," Heero added. Cheyenne and Yumi sighed in relief and then coughed in apology when Kaila turned infuriated eyes upon them.

**(*)**

Things went better for Kaila but worse for Cheyenne once they reached Trowa. They'd all changed into matching black sweats and tank tops as they stretched in the gym. Trowa stretched with them and Cheyenne tried to keep her cool and not stare at the beautiful biceps the guy had on him…or the sexy eyes…or that spiky hair…. '_Le sigh_,' she murmured inwardly. She still had a major crush on the guy but after the movie debacle she'd been too embarrassed to approach him. So she'd waited for him to approach her…only he hadn't. And that sucked. '_Guess you don't like me, Cutie…_'

When Trowa stood up and shook out his limbs, the girls did the same and waited for him to speak. "Okay, today we're going to start out with something simple, like a back-flip," he told them, as serious as ever. Cheyenne raised her hand. "Yes?"

"Um, I can't even do a cartwheel," she supplied. Trowa stared at her blankly and she looked down at the floor, embarrassed. "Well, I can't!"

Trowa shook his head slowly. "Can you, Yumi?"

Yumi nodded and performed a perfect cartwheel. Trowa turned to Kaila and asked her the same question and she executed a cartwheel with no hands in response.

Cheyenne's mouth dropped at her friends' skill. "No fair! How'd you guys learn that when I wasn't looking?"

Yumi giggled. "I took gymnastics in high school."

"And I was a cheerleader in junior high before we met," Kaila added.

"Overachievers…"

Trowa rubbed his chin. "Then you already know how to do back-flips and all of that, right?" The girls nodded. "Good, then we can move on to more difficult things…" he trailed off and turned to Cheyenne who smiled weakly. "Um…why don't you try doing a cartwheel, Cheyenne? We can see how much we have to work with."

Cheyenne gulped, hating to embarrass herself in front of her crush. '_Maybe if I believe I can do it, then I magically will_!' With that thought, she started to do what she'd seen Yumi do, but somewhere in between putting her hands on the mat and getting her legs in the air something strange happened and she landed on her back. "Ow! Owowowowow!" she cried, rubbing her head. "Owwieeee!"

Trowa shook his head again while Yumi and Kaila tried to stifle their laughs. "Looks like you have a long, hard two hours ahead of you, Cheyenne," he said.

Cheyenne only closed her eyes and wearily lay back on the mat.

**(*)**

"This sucks," Cheyenne complained. She nursed a bruised shoulder and knee as she and her friends waited for Wufei to arrive. They were still in the gym where Trowa had left them, hanging around for Wufei so he could show them basic martial arts skills.

Kaila grinned. "Aw, that was more fun then shooting guns."

"I was good at shooting guns!"

"That's because you had this little dinky gun-"

"Don't hate because you can't handle your gun!"

"At least I can do a decent cartwheel!"

"C'mon guys, they're turning us against each other!" Yumi warned though she was clearly joking. The girls nodded anyway and then watched Wufei walk into the gym fifteen minutes later than he should have.

"Well, aren't we punctual?" Cheyenne said. Wufei didn't respond as he took off his Chinese jacket and laid it over his bag. Again, Cheyenne had to hold herself in check when she saw his well-muscled arms. '_Geez, are all of them this nicely built?'_

Wufei walked over to stand in front of them with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. "Teaching a bunch of weak women my prized martial arts skills is not how I planned to spend my afternoons…but so be it." So saying, he turned around and took a towel out of his work bag.

Cheyenne rolled her eyes at his back. "Jeez, spending two hours working my butt off trying to get the perfect cartwheel and now I have to spend two more listening to a chauvinist pig try to teach me stuff? Oy, there's no justice in this world…"

Wufei immediately stopped what he was doing and turned around. "What…did you say?" he hissed.

Cheyenne blinked at him. "What?"

"What…did…you…_say_?"

"Um…there's no justice..?"

"JUSTICE? What do YOU know about JUSTICE? HUH?" Wufei stalked over and yelled directly in her face. "Is justice wasting my time with you guys, huh? Was it justice that saved everyone on Colony Five? Huh? Was it justice that failed to save _her_? HUH? Where was justice that day, huuuuh?"

Cheyenne could only blink at his frustrated face. "Umm…I guess justice is just…um…blind…?" she mumbled for lack of anything else to say.

After several awkward minutes that consisted of Wufei growling at her, he threw his hands up in disgust and returned to his bag to fish out some hand weights.

Cheyenne edged closer to her friends. "Yipes…"

"How about we stay on _this_ side of the gym, eh?" Yumi agreed.

"Geez, remind me to never use the "J" word around Wufei."

Kaila shook her head. "And I thought _Quatre_ was strange…"

"You think Quatre's strange?" Yumi asked, ready to defend her new crush.

"Um, Yumi, the guy walks around wearing pastels," Kaila spread her hands. "Don't tell me you like a wacko like that? I'm not even sure if he likes girls."

Yumi crossed her arms in defense and closed her eyes. "Well, at least he looks good in what he wears. I mean, he could be walking around with…with a braid like Duo! Talk about ew!"

"Hey, lay off the fam-"

"There's nothing wrong with Duo's braid!" Kaila snapped, cutting off Cheyenne's words. Yumi and Cheyenne blinked in silence for a second.

"Whoa, Kaila, what just happened here?" Cheyenne raised an eyebrow. "Did I miss the chapter where you fell in love with my cousin?"

"What? N-No!"

Yumi smirked. "Yeah, aren't we defensive of braid-boy? You never told us you liiiiiiiiked him, Kaila."

"W-Who said I did?" Kaila retorted.

"Uh huh!" Yumi laughed knowingly.

"YUMI YAMASHITA YOU DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING!"

"Whoa! Hey, c'mon guys, remember? Don't let 'em turn us against each other, right?" Cheyenne reminded them.

They nodded and looked up at Wufei who was glaring impatiently at them. "_If_ you are all done with your useless female chatter, then let the pain begin!"

**(*)**

All three girls' heads were on the large table in the sub-basement room when Quatre and Relena walked in at eight o' clock that night. Though the three had left what Cheyenne had dubbed "Wicked Wufei's Wack Workout", changed back into their regular clothes and eaten a quick dinner, they hadn't had any time to really relax and were all aching for a nice soothing shower.

Relena smiled as she sat down at the table. "I take it Heero, Trowa and Wufei worked you all pretty hard today?" Cheyenne muttered something unintelligible and Yumi and Kaila didn't bother to respond at all. "What was that, Cheyenne?"

"I said…" Cheyenne painfully raised her head off the table. "All of you are full of it. You know full and well that we can't handle all this crap at once." With that she plopped her head back on the table.

"Er…" Relena cleared her throat and gestured at Quatre. "Well, now you can relax and forget about physical exertion. Quatre and I are here to exercise your brains."

"Charming," Kaila grumbled, pushing herself up from the table.

Yumi turned to Quatre and winked. "Well, I guess this part is worth it since I get to look at you for two hours." She gave him a warm smile and he blushed and pulled at his collar nervously.

"Someone's laying it on thick, eh?" Kaila muttered.

"Just making sure my prey knows I'm the prowl. Rowr!"

"Um…I c-can hear you…" Quatre stuttered.

"And just think, Yumi," Cheyenne raised her head and laid a hand on her cheek. "After this you and Kaila get to take a nice long bubble bath."

Yumi smiled and Kaila grinned. "Yeah…" they said dreamily at the same time.

"Yeah, yay for you guys," she muttered darkly. Yumi and Kaila gave their friend sympathetic looks as Quatre began to speak.

"Um, okay, for the next couple of days we're going to test your strategy abilities." He spread a map out on the table. "I'd like for all of you to study this."

The three complied and for the next hour Quatre and Relena laid out a hostage scenario in which the girls had to save everybody in a limited amount of time.

At the end of the first hour, Quatre took pity on their tired faces and allowed them a short break. The three immediately walked into the lounge and bought pink lemonades from the soda machine.

As they sat drinking, each lost in their thoughts, Duo walked in and joined them. "Hey, what's goin' on?" he asked happily. All three looked at him with pained expressions on their faces. "Working that hard, huh?"

Cheyenne threw her legs up on the couch and set her lemonade on the table. "All of you are crazy and none of this makes sense!" she complained. "Now come on, Duo, can't you at least tell us what we're going into commando mode for? I mean, what's this all about?"

"What _what's_ all about?" Duo asked with his eyes wide.

Yumi shook her lemonade at him from across the table. "All of this training, braid-boy. Are we gonna take those "Shadow Walkers" on that you all were talking about before? Are we gonna kick some butt or what?"

Duo shrugged. "I dunno, it depends on how well you do. But we really won't have time to train other people in case you _don't_ work out, so I really don't know what Relena's plan is. Either way, as I'm sure you've figured out, this school _is _a school but undercover it's a set-up to find people to join our team. We've got about half the students working for us behind the scenes while the other half doesn't know a thing. So…" he spread his hands and grinned. "Welcome to how the other half lives, ladies."

"The other half sucks," Cheyenne moodily laid her head back on the chair.

"But what are you guys doing?" Yumi wanted to know.

Duo shrugged. "Protecting everyone from threats like these new Shadow Walkers."

"And who are these, um, Shadow Walkers?" Kaila asked a little nervously from her seat next to him. She picked at her fancy blouse and refused to look up.

Duo leant forward and placed his chin on his hands. "They're terrorists. They're the ones who keep threatening Relena's life. But not just Relena, Earth too…"

"What do you mean, Earth Two, Cuz?" Cheyenne glared at him. "Are you serious? There's another Earth floating around?"

"I wouldn't be surprised," Yumi added.

Duo laughed. "No, no. I mean the Shadow's target is Relena and all of Earth _too._" The girls stared at him for a moment and then shook their heads.

"Most people just target a country; these idiots want to blow up the whole planet?" Cheyenne snorted.

"Where the heck are they gonna live if they blow up the Earth?" Yumi snickered.

"You all truly don't understand…" Duo shrugged and abruptly got up, bought a Mountain Dew and prepared to leave. "Well, hopefully you will soon. See you all later!"

Kaila waved at his disappearing figure and Yumi laughed at her. "Mm-hm, why'd you get so quiet all of a sudden, Kaye-chan?" she asked.

"The plot thickens," Cheyenne grinned.

Kaila rolled her eyes at them and stood up. "Let's go. Pastel Boy is calling us."

**(*)**

"So what's the best way to go about saving the hostages? Kaila?" Relena asked.

Kaila studied the map and then shrugged her shoulders. "Easy, Ranena, we just take 'em through this back door right here."

"Think so?" Relena asked.

"I just said so, didn't I?"

Relena brought both hands together in a loud clap and shook her head. "Nope, you just killed everyone. The back door is laced with explosives remember?"

"Oh…" Kaila rolled her eyes. "Too bad for us then, we're dead."

Relena sighed. "Yumi? What do you think?"

"I say we go back the way we came," Yumi pointed on the map. "The air vent, all the way!"

"What about the old man in your group?" Quatre asked. "He won't be able to make it."

"And if he does make it, he'll slow everyone down immensely." Relena shook her head, wondering if any of the girls were going to get this. It was supposed to be easy. "No good. What do you say, Cheyenne?"

"Um…let's see here." Cheyenne got up on her knees in the chair and leant over the map. "The back door has explosives…the air vent is no good…the front door is just stupid since guards are in front…hey!" She grinned and stabbed a part of the map with her finger. "This little dot! That's right! Look guys, there's a little passage that runs underneath the building. If we could go through that…" She traced her finger on a line over the map. "And two of us were in front of the group and the third person guarded the rear, then we'd be outta there in no time."

"What about the old man?" Quatre pressed.

"He's getting outta there if I have to carry him on my back!" Cheyenne grinned. "No, but seriously, I'll get the big dude in the group to carry him, so it'll be all good." The other girls began to compliment Cheyenne on her strategy skill.

"And if that doesn't work, we can always roll him out," Kaila joked.

"What about the dog?" Relena asked suddenly. All three blinked.

"I'm sorry, dog? What dog?" Yumi asked.

"There's no frickin' dog!" Cheyenne snapped. "You made that up, Ranequa!"

"Oh no, wait…" Kaila interrupted, going back over their notes. "See look, it says five hostages: two middle-aged people, one child, one older man and one animal."

"Oh, well, crap," Cheyenne huffed. "What about the dog? He'll come along."

"Let's say he's scared of dark, damp places," Relena suggested.

"What kinda dog is that?" Yumi challenged her and Kaila laughed.

Cheyenne nodded curtly. "Well, we're just gonna have to leave him if he doesn't want to come along. I'm sorry, but sacrifices are going to have to be made. We can't sit around and die just because a dog wants to." The other girls nodded. Relena and Quatre exchanged glances.

"Well, either way, you're right, of course, that's the way to get out," Quatre smiled at them. "That's all for today, then, you may head back to your rooms now."

Relena nodded in agreement and turned to Cheyenne. "Duo will meet you at the hangar at 2300."

Cheyenne looked at her watch. "Geez! It's ten o' clock already? This is crazy! How am I going to get up for classes tomorrow if I'm practicing with Duo all night?"

"I think he's just going to introduce you to your mobile suit tonight, Shy. You'll practice flying in the morning," Quatre replied.

"What _is_ this "mobile suit" thingy?"

Relena smiled. "You'll find out soon enough."

"I don't like her either," Kaila mumbled as the girls left the room. "I never did."

"Hehe, we know, Kaye, we know."

"Right, because of Heero," Yumi added. "Not that it matters anymore, now that you like-"

"Shut up!"

"Hey Cuz, ready to go?" Duo asked. He'd waited outside for them.

Kaila patted her best friend's shoulder. "Good luck, girl. When I'm in that nice warm shower, I'll think of ya."

Yumi nodded. "Yeah, I'll keep on a light for you when I'm all snuggled in my bed under the blankets."

"Gee, thanks," Cheyenne smirked at her friends who giggled and waved.

Duo moved aside to let the two pass, giving an extra large grin to Kaila. "Looking good, Beautiful," he winked at her.

Kaila gave him a shy smile back, then without warning reached out and pulled on his braid as she walked past him. "Call me?" she murmured.

"Will do!" Duo grinned. He watched her walk off before he turned to Cheyenne. "So Cuz, I hear you're wondering about your mobile suit, eh? Well, come on then, your curiosity ends now!"

"You are _much_ too awake for this time of night," Cheyenne grumbled as she followed the very cheerful Duo out towards the hangar.


	9. Chapter 9 BlizzardCry

**9) Blizzard-Cry**

"It's…beautiful…" Cheyenne gasped as she looked up at the large, seven story high bluish-gray robot.

"Yeah…" Duo grinned beside her. "It's called _Blizzard-Cry,_ the newest Gundam that we've added to our ranks. Heero was supposed to fly it, but-"

"But what?" Cheyenne asked, still looking up at _Blizzard-Cry_.

"I dunno. I guess he didn't want to," he replied awkwardly. "Anyways, I just wanted to get you acquainted with your mobile suit. We won't fly it now 'cause you're exhausted. We'll start tomorrow morning bright and early."

"Lovely." Her tone was clearly sarcastic. "Um…how do I get up there?"

He laughed at her. "Haven't you been paying attention in Trowa's class? You flip up there like this!" He immediately leapt towards _Blizzard-Cry_, caught onto one of its burners and then scrambled up as swiftly as a cat would a tree.

Cheyenne gaped at him. "Without a ladder or elevator or something? You're kidding, right?"

"Nah uh," Duo grinned as he leapt back down. "Once you get up there, enter this code in at the top." He handed her a little paper with some numbers scribbled on it. "Inside the cockpit is a book that I want you to read. It'll explain the fundamentals of Gundam flying."

"'Gundam flying'?"

"Ah, just do it. I'm out!" Duo waved and ran off to the nearest phone to call Kaila. '_Talk about score!'_ After all, Kaila was a total babe. If she wasn't interested in Heero anymore then that was all the better for him!

Cheyenne glared at Duo's back in exasperation and then turned her gaze up to the dark, forbidding looking robot. "Well, here goes nothing."

After an hour of trying to climb past _Blizzard-Cry_'s foot, she slid back down to the floor and wearily laid her head back on its foot. "This is ridiculous…I'll never do it. I give up!"

"Your file says you never give up."

She looked around and wiped the sweat off of her face until finally spotting Wufei above her, leaning against another Gundam across from hers with his arms crossed. She narrowed her eyes at him, wondering if he'd had a good laugh at her expense for the last hour…probably so. "But this is a little extreme," she drew her legs up to her chest. "And what do you care anyway?"

"You're not truly desiring her," he answered.

That answer blew her mind. "Ex-squeeze me? What? Her? Her who?"

"Your Gundam," he pointed at it. "_Blizzard-Cry_."

"Who said it was a 'she'?"

"I did." He jumped down from his Gundam but refused to move any closer to her. A look of disgust flittered across his face. "Euh, you smell."

"Thanks, right back at ya." She laid her head on her legs and wondered what the point of him being there was. She didn't have to wait long.

"Your problem is that you don't truly understand your goal," Wufei explained. "Once you realize that it's not just a hollow robot you're trying to enter but a part of you, then you'll understand."

Cheyenne stared. "What in the world, Wufei?"** (Alliteration!)**

He threw his hands in the air in frustration. "Just do as I say, woman! Sheesh! This is the point where you're supposed to look up at your Gundam and say…" He put a hand to his chest and raised his voice to a ridiculously high-pitched bad southern accent. "Well, gosh darn, now ah understand! Wufei sho was righ!"

She narrowed her eyes at him and slowly stood up. "I'm not southern, you weirdo. You no call me that!" she added in a bad Chinese accent.

He glared at her as she turned and looked up at _Blizzard-Cry_. He put his hands on his hips. "So what do you see?"

"A robot…"

"No. What do you see?"

"_Blizzard-Cry_."

"No, what do you see?"

"Ooh, I got it! A robot named _Blizzard-Cry_?"

"Idiot, what do you _see_?"

"I see…" She sighed in exasperation. "Nothing."

"Nope, what do you see?" Wufei repeated.

'_Geez, he could do this all night!'_ Cheyenne squinted at _Blizzard-Cry_. Wufei's strange game of 20 Questions was not her idea of fun and he was also the _last_ person she wanted to deal with right then. Even though…

She looked over her shoulder at him. He stood with his arms crossed, staring at her intently. She felt small under his stare but again immensely attracted to him. '_What is it about him? He's rude, arrogant, chauvinistic…what's my problem?'_ she sighed and turned back to _Blizzard-Cry_.

Suddenly her eyes widened. There was something familiar about the bluish-gray robot just then. The curves and ends of the design were comfortable to her and the face seemed to smile at her. Cheyenne smiled back. "I see…I see myself…"

"Then try climbing again," he commanded and she turned to face him.

"Why are you…?" But she was looking at nothing. Wufei had disappeared. "What, he's Batman now?" she joked and turned back to her mobile suit. "All right, BC. Let's give this another try…"

Thirty minutes later Cheyenne had made it to _Blizzard-Cry_'s thrusters. She knelt there to catch her breath and rub several newly formed bruises while not daring to look down. Finally, she carefully crawled over to the cockpit window. Above the cockpit was a place where she could input a code so she took out Duo's paper from her blue jeans' pocket and punched in the numbers.

A beep like a car alarm sounded and the cockpit door swished open. She thankfully flopped into the comfortable looking pilot's seat and closed her eyes as the cockpit door closed over her. Never before had she felt so safe in a strange place. She didn't even bother looking around or finding the book that Duo wanted her to read. Instead she curled up in the chair and abruptly fell into a well-earned sleep. Out of nowhere a blanket fell from the ceiling of the cockpit and covered her.

Down below, Duo looked up at _Blizzard-Cry_ with his arms crossed and a proud smile on his face. "She's becoming one of us," he said to no one in particular. "Good job, Cuz."

'_But she won't last, Duo…women never do…' _Wufei thought silently from the shadows of his Gundam _Shen-Long_. '_Blizzard-Cry will be your downfall, woman, you're only setting yourself up for failure.'_

**(*)**_  
_

"Wake up, Foxy Brown!"

Cheyenne opened her gray eyes to meet Duo's wide aquamarine ones. "Wha?" she yawned a little. "Foxy…?"

"Well, I was gonna call you "Snow White" but it didn't really fit ya," Duo laughed and then leant back when she yawned. "Whoa, keep that morning breath to yourself, Cuz." He waved a hand in the air. "EUH!"

Cheyenne glared drowsily as she stretched. "What are you-" She stopped and covered her mouth. "What are you doing here?"

"Duh, I'm here to wake you up! You gotta take a shower and wash up and all that jazz and then we begin flying!" Duo disappeared from view as he climbed back down _Blizzard-Cry_. "So come on already!"

Cheyenne stretched again and groggily removed the gray blanket that covered her. She paused for only a moment to wonder where the blanket even came from, then shrugged it aside, feeling incredibly icky as she climbed out of her cockpit and carefully picked her way down to the ground. It was there she was met with Yumi and Kaila who had smiles on their faces.

"When you didn't come back last night, we got worried, Shy-chan," Yumi greeted.

Kaila nodded and pointed to her left through the darkened area, past the Gundams and in a short hallway. "There's a shower room down there. Here goes your bathroom stuff."

"And here's the school uniform for you," Yumi added.

Cheyenne smiled sleepily at her friends. "Thanks guys, I appreciate this."

Her friends only nodded and grinned.

"We gotta stick together remember?" Kaila said.

"Yeah, you're going to have to help me out with my strategy skills," Yumi added.

Cheyenne laughed. "And me with gymnastics."

"And me with guns," Kaila supplied.

Yumi nodded and put her hand in front of her. "'Cause we're a team, right?" Kaila and Cheyenne nodded and laid their hands on top of hers.

"All the way," Cheyenne replied.

"Until later today," Kaila added. The girls laughed and shook their heads at her.

Duo smiled. "All right, that was sweet and everything. Now c'mon, Cuz, we got work to do."

"Right!" Cheyenne nodded and ran off towards the showers.

"Good luck flying!" Yumi waved.

"Don't screw up!" Kaila added and turned to Duo. "Take care of her, Duo, okay?"

Duo grinned and kissed her hand. "Of course."

Kaila smiled softly back until Yumi rolled her eyes and dragged her away. "Come on, come on, let's go get some breakfast."

"But Duo, don't you want to join us for breakfast?"

"I do? I mean, yeah!" Duo corrected himself quickly at Kaila's glare. "I'll be there!"

**(*)**

"So you read some of the book already, right?" Duo asked from the intercom. He and Cheyenne both sat in their respective Gundams: Cheyenne in _Blizzard-Cry_ and Duo in an impressive looking black mobile suit named _Death-Scythe_.

Cheyenne quickly looked around and grabbed a book entitled, "_Gundams. Now you can fly us too!" _She flipped it open to the front page and skimmed it. "Uh, yeah, I read the whole first chapter," she mumbled.

"Good! Then you should already know the basics. Follow me!" Instantly the enclosed ceiling above them split and began to open, showing the early morning sky just turning blue. Cheyenne watched _Death-Scythe_ boot up and fly straight out of the hangar. She frantically flipped through the book to find out how to imitate him but then calmed down and looked around the cockpit before turning to the first page again.

"'To start up your Gundam, go to the keypad and press 'start'," she recited. "Well, this might be a no-brainer after all." She pressed the start button and _Blizzard-Cry_ vibrated around her. "Whoa." The power that her mobile suit had was incredible! She hurriedly buckled her seatbelt and glanced at the book to see what step two was.

"'After the Gundam's started, you-oof!" _Blizzard-Cry_ vibrated rather hard and jerked her forward, knocking the book out of her lap. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me..." she muttered. She leant forward to find the book but the floor area was pitch-black.

Duo's face appeared on the screen to her left. "I'm waiiiiiting," he teased. Cheyenne's head flew up and she grinned nervously at her cousin. He raised an eyebrow. "Is everything okay?" he asked.

"Um…sure!" Cheyenne lied. "I...I just...I was fixing my shirt."

"Right _now_?" Duo groaned. "Stop playing around and get up here already." His face disappeared from her screen.

Cheyenne sighed and used her foot to try locating the missing book but she accidentally pressed some sort of pedal that made _Blizzard-Cry_ move forward. "Wait no!" She tried to tell the robot. "Don't!" _Blizzard-Cry_ refused to listen as long as she had her foot on the "forward" pedal though and so continued to clang ahead. She noticed Wufei's _Shen-Long_ Gundam getting closer and closer and, gasping in surprise, she took her foot off of the pedal before she rammed into it. _Blizzard-Cry_ stopped instantly.

She sat in stunned silence for a bit, surprised and a little scared. "Okay, I'm sure this isn't supposed to be that hard...and I definitely don't want to mess up Wufei's Gundam..." She knew he'd rant on and on about "injustice" if she did.

She hesitantly placed her hands around the joystick in front of her and pulled back like she saw pilots do in several jet movies. "This should work..."

Instead of flying straight up however, _Blizzard-Cry_'s arms raised and reached back behind it. The next thing she saw were two icy looking samurai swords in each of her Gundam's gigantic hands.

"What the...where did those come from?" She pushed forward on the joystick. "Put those back!" she ordered. _Blizzard-Cry_'s arms began to angle towards the Gundam that Duo had told her was Trowa's at an alarming rate.

"No, no!" she yelped, taking her hands off the joystick hurriedly. "Don't try to kill Trowa's Gundam!" _Blizzard-Cry_ complied but she began to sweat bullets. '_How do I get outta here without causing any damage to anyone else? Stupid, stupid, stupid, why didn't I just tell Duo that I hadn't read the book yet?'_

"Cheyenne?" Duo's face appeared on her screen again.

"I'm okay! I'm coming!" she replied hurriedly. Duo gave her a suspicious look before disappearing from her screen once more. Cheyenne silently shook her head and looked around at the controls closely. Suddenly her eyes lit up and she pulled a lever. "Ah! Lift! This must be it!" She grinned as _Blizzard-Cry_ replaced the swords in the sheathes on its back and turned its afterburners towards the ground. Slowly the Gundam began to float upwards in the air.

Elated at her victory, Cheyenne threw her hands in air and cheered but accidentally placed her foot back on a pedal. _Blizzard-Cry_ lashed out with its foot and toppled Wufei's Gundam backwards. She stopped cheering and covered her mouth with her hand. "Oops..."

**(*)**

As Duo and Cheyenne walked back from the hangar towards the school, they laughed about her first flying experience.

"It's okay, no one ever reads the book the first time," Duo chuckled. "I figured you hadn't read it since I saw that it took you all night to reach _Blizzard-Cry_ in the first place."

Cheyenne gaped at him. "Then why'd you let me go through all that?"

"You had to learn the hard way, I guess," he grinned. "Bet you'll read the book from now on, huh?"

"Oooh yeah." She held the book up in her right hand. "Yet _a__nother_ book for me to study."

"And speaking of doing things the hard way..." Duo added and she gave him a curious look. "You _do_ know there's a little bar that will take you right up to your Gundam cockpit, right?" he asked.

"WHAT?" She yelled at her cousin in disbelief. "Of course I didn't know! Why would I have spent all night trying to climb the thing by hand if I knew?" Duo started to laugh at her and she gritted her teeth, feeling incredibly stupid. "Ooh! I hate you!" She swatted at him with her book.

"At least you got plenty of exercise!" He ducked her swings. "And now you can get up there in emergency situations! You won't _always_ be in a hangar, you know!"

She stopped swatting at him, crossed her arms and huffed. "Whatever."

Duo smiled and glanced back at the hangar. "By the way, excellent flying for your first try, Shy."

"Really?" she brightened.

"Sure, you caught on fast! I'm surprised you made it out of the hangar with no problems."

"Er...about that...um...Wufei's Gundam..."

"I know...shhh, here he comes," Duo replied as they reached campus and saw the guys walking over to meet them.

"You did great, Shy!" Quatre complimented her.

"Thanks!"

"For your first day, that is," Trowa told her. "But for future reference, you were leaning too far over in your turns."

"Your rolls were sloppy," Heero added.

"Don't ever pull your weapons out like that again," Wufei supplied. "It was all show."

"Show is good, though. It frightens your enemies," Trowa argued.

"Not if you don't have anything to back it up!" Wufei snapped.

"And your gun skills need more work," Heero said.

"Your flips were terrible," Trowa remembered suddenly.

"The key word is defense. You don't have any," Wufei said.

Cheyenne and Quatre sweat-dropped and Duo waved his hands in front of their faces.

"Hey now, _I'm_ the teacher here, and I say she did fine for her first day. Just fine!" Duo retorted. "Now leave her alone. Anyway, Shy, make sure you…" He paused. "Oh crap, nevermind, I'm heading to breakfast so c-ya!" He ran quickly towards campus for the breakfast date he had "made" with Kaila. The five watched him go in silence.

"What's his hurry?" Trowa wondered.

"Yumi told me he has a date with Kaila this morning," Quatre replied.

"Kaila?" Cheyenne's jaw dropped. "No fair! I haven't had a date since…" she paused and blushed. "Never-mind, it's sad."

"Women," Wufei muttered in disgust. "They'll cloud your mind in an instant."

Heero shrugged and turned to walk off towards his class. Something was obviously bothering him that had nothing to do with Cheyenne's flying but he had no intention of telling anybody what it really was.

The group didn't notice however and Cheyenne turned to give a nervous look to Trowa and Quatre, ignoring Wufei since she knew he'd say something bad anyway. "I was really _that_ bad?" she asked softly. Quatre and Trowa shook their heads while Wufei nodded. Trowa glared at him but he only shrugged his shoulders.

"Why hide the truth?" Wufei asked. "The truth is what so many people have given their lives to find! The truth is what this world needs to run on but doesn't! The truth is what hurts! And the truth is that she sucked."

"You're being way too harsh on her, Wufei," Quatre sighed.

Trowa nodded in agreement. "Even _you_ know she wasn't all that bad."

Wufei glared at the two and then turned to Cheyenne, staring hard at her. She refused to meet his eyes because of the embarrassment and anger welling up in her, but when their eyes finally did meet she froze. There was a strange intense emotion in his eyes that made her think twice about what he was saying. It was as if he were silently telling her that he was only trying to help. She couldn't help it but a slow smile spread across her face.

Trowa and Quatre looked from her to Wufei and back.

"What?" Quatre asked, puzzled.

Wufei tore his eyes away, shaking the nagging feeling that she was so Nataku-like to him. She was even beginning to resemble her. "Nothing," he replied roughly, muttering something in Chinese.

Cheyenne smiled again, deciding that now was not the time to tell him that she understood Chinese. Japanese, no…Chinese, yes. She continued to study him and wondered if all the teasing he did to her was more than just him being plain evil. She remembered the day they'd talked in the park and the way he'd opened up to her. And then how he'd wanted her to ride home with _him_ and not Quatre. '_And what about the time at the movies when he gave me his coat?'_

"Wufei..." She took a step towards him but he gave her such a nasty look that she stopped. Confused, she glanced up and noticed Trowa and Quatre staring at them and cleared her throat, not wanting to embarrass him. With them around she was sure he would deny anything she said. "Um...you know how you said I shouldn't pull my weapons out the way I did?" she asked instead.

He glared at her in suspicion. "Yeah?"

"Well, you also remember how I said that I'd get you back one day for the ant thing?" She bit her lip and his eyes widened. "And, well, in the hangar, before I got off the ground-"

"No! You didn't! Natakuuuu!" Wufei turned and ran towards the hangar.

"Wufei! It was an accident!" she called after him, giggling. Quatre laughed with her while Trowa only shook his head.

"Nice," he murmured. "But are you sure it wasn't on purpose?"

"Promise!" Cheyenne turned to him as if he were accusing her. "I swear it! I'd never…" When she saw that he was only smiling softly at her, she relaxed. "Hehe, I mean of course not, you dork." She gave him a wistful smile but she'd all but given up on trying to impress him after the training. She figured he just wasn't interested in her and she'd have to be content enough with being his friend. Thinking that, she giggled and slipped an arm through each of the guys' arms as they headed down towards the campus. "So who's up for breakfast?" she asked cheerfully.

"Ooh with tea!" Quatre smiled. "Tea! Tea!"

"Uh huh," Trowa murmured but his green eyes were on the redhead. He noticed that he smiled a lot more when he was around her and found he liked her bubbly personality more and more. "Tea for two."

**(_Now_ Trowa decides to like her, sheesh.)**


	10. Chapter 10 Inner Thoughts

**10) Inner Thoughts**

Yumi and Quatre sat across from each other on two couches in the side lounge of the arcade. They were quietly studying their English homework together.

"Tea?"

"Huh? Oh, thanks Rashid," Quatre nodded. The Arab man poured the warm liquid out of a crystal decanter and handed it to the blonde. He turned to Yumi who shook her head with a raised eyebrow.

"No thanks," she replied. When Rashid bowed and headed back out into the arcade, Yumi turned to Quatre. "Weird. Where did that guy just come from? He just appeared from out of nowhere!"

Quatre only smiled.

One month had passed since the girls' training first began and they were fast on their way to becoming pros. Relena smiled more and more as she watched them train, mostly because of the speed at which they learned everything. Cheyenne's cartwheels were darn near flawless, Yumi's bullets never missed their mark and Kaila was becoming a strategy genius. However, as each day passed, the guys seemed to grow more and more grim. They knew the mission was close at hand and they also realized that nothing could prepare the girls for the real thing.

Quatre kept stealing glances at Yumi as they studied. The two had grown closer over the month but then again, so had everyone else in the group except for Heero who was just being Heero. Quatre was a little worried about Yumi being involved in the whole mission, to tell the truth. She was supposed to be the spy of the group, the one who snuck in and did the dirty work...alone. He wasn't sure he liked that even though the guys had all snuck into places by themselves several times before. But Yumi still wasn't all that great at strategy and Quatre feared the worst for her once she penetrated the Shadow Walker's headquarters.

Yumi looked up at him and smiled, placing her pencil and notebook down in her lap. "What's on your mind, Q-chan?" she asked, smirking as if she already knew the answer. He only shook his head hurriedly and returned to writing his essay. She raised an eyebrow, set her notebook down on the couch and walked across the room to sit down next to him. He tried to slow his breathing at her being so close to him. There was no doubt that he had a crush on her and she obviously had one on him, but he wasn't ready to act on his feelings just yet.

She took the notebook away from him, set it on the table beside her and trailed her fingers up and down his shoulder. "Why don't we...take a break from studying, hm?" she asked softly.

Quatre gulped and shook his head, reaching for his notebook with shaking hands. "No…uh…you know this paper is due Friday, Yumi. Um, we need every second we can get." He tried to ignore her skin-tight leather skirt and the flimsy pink blouse that fit her just as well.

Yumi pouted and began to caress his cheek. "C'mon, Quatre, loosen up a little. It's just us." She inched closer and brought her lips near his neck.

"Yumi..." Quatre licked his lips.

"Hmm?" she whispered back, about to touch his neck with her mouth.

"ABSTINENCE IS THE BEST WAY TO PREVENT PREGNANCY!" he screamed suddenly.

Yumi's eyes opened wide and she pulled back to give him an incredulous stare. "What?" she asked.

"Um...err..." Quatre blushed very, very red. He had just said the first thing that came to his mind and now the girl of his dreams-who had just been coming onto him-was looking at him as if he were a worm. '_I must be the stupidest guy alive..._'

"Um...I...nothing, Yumi," he said aloud.

A smile began to play across her rose-colored lips and she shrugged. "Oh, whatever, then." She moved closer again but he shied away.

"Uh, really, Yumi! I think we need to take this thing slow, you know? I don't want to rush into anything!" he yelped and Yumi stopped. They stared at each for a minute with blue eyes meeting reddish-brown ones. _'Stupid, stupid, stupid,'_ kept repeating over and over in Quatre's head as Yumi rolled her eyes and got up from his couch, returning to hers with a huff. Saying nothing, she began to work on her paper again. He sighed and tried to return to his work as well but to no avail. He found himself curiously tempted to finish what she'd started. After several minutes of fighting with himself he looked up at her. She was staring right back. Blood ran to his cheeks as she raised an eyebrow as if to say, "Your move."

'_Oh, man, someone save me!' _Quatre pleaded, fearing he'd lose his self-control.

"Can't you two just SHUT UP?"

Yumi's gaze immediately went to the door and Quatre breathed an immense sigh of relief, wishing he could just melt into the chair. Into the room burst Kaila, Heero, Cheyenne and Wufei. The last two named were both giving Kaila death glares.

"I was merely telling her that Nataku is safe with or WITHOUT seatbelts!" Wufei growled. "And that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard! Seatbelts on a motorcycle?"

Cheyenne angrily shook her pilot manual at him. After her first day of flying _Blizzard-Cry,_ she was rarely seen without it. "Look here, Chang Wufei. I'll have you know that those things are dangerous and until you get a passenger helmet, I refuse to ride on that thing anymore!"

"Thing!" Wufei yelled.

"Wokka-Wokka or whatever," Cheyenne amended.

"It's Nataku!"

Kaila grabbed Cheyenne's arm and pulled her over to Yumi's couch. "Over here. Sit with me and leave him alone."

"We're here," Heero announced pointlessly. Yumi laughed at them and returned to her notes. Wufei leant against the wall next to the door, content with glaring at Cheyenne. Meanwhile, Heero walked across the room to buy a Coke, open it, and glance out the patio glass doors, sipping every once in a while.

Cheyenne huffed and opened her manual back up, preparing to read when she noticed Quatre's face. "Why so red-faced, Q?" she asked.

"Um...um..." Quatre stammered, looking helplessly at the floor.

Yumi cleared her throat. "We've been studying real hard," she answered coolly. Quatre nodded, his head bobbing up and down.

"Oh," Cheyenne went back to her book.

Kaila stared at Yumi, then Quatre and back. "Mm-hmm..." she murmured. Yumi shot her a death glare and Kaila stifled a laugh.

**(*)**

"Thanks for giving me a ride, Trowa," Duo told his friend as they stepped into the arcade. "Although, pardon me for saying so, your truck smells like horse crap."

"Comes with the job," Trowa shrugged. Duo sighed and shook his head as they walked through the karaoke crowd, around the arcade games and into the lounge near the back, but he stopped Trowa outside the door. "What?" Trowa wanted to know.

"Trowa...um...okay...um...all right...um..."

"_What_, Duo?"

"How do you know when you really like someone?" Duo blurted out. He asked Trowa because he seemed to know a lot about women although the guy hadn't had a girlfriend in years.

Trowa raised an eyebrow at Duo and studied him with dark green eyes. "We're talking about Kaila?" he asked.

"We're talking about Kaila," Duo confirmed.

Trowa rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger in thought. "You really like someone when you act the way you do around her."

"Huh?" Duo scratched his head.

Trowa spread his hands and closed his eyes. "The way you act around Kaila; it shows how much you like her."

"And, and the way she acts around me…?"

Trowa smiled thinly and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Go ahead and do it, Duo, the feelings are mutual between you two."

"Cool!"

Trowa only wished his current crush situation were as easily solved as Duo's.

**(*)**

Cheyenne looked up as Duo and Trowa entered the lounge and smiled at them. She knowingly got up so Duo could sit next to Kaila since the two had grown very close as of late. More than just teasing, their relationship was starting to take a serious turn. Duo winked at his cousin as he sat down next to Kaila. He placed an arm behind her and whispered something in her ear. She giggled a bit.

Heero sat down beside Quatre and seemed to stare at his soda can but he was really staring at nothing. Cheyenne settled herself into an armchair next to Quatre's couch, curling up in it. Wufei, for no apparent reason, walked over to her chair and, after exchanging a dirty look with her, placed himself on her armrest. Cheyenne rolled her eyes and went back to studying with him looking over her shoulder. Trowa stared at them and rested against the wall Wufei had been before. The room went silent except for an occasional giggle from Kaila.

'_What is he trying to pull?' _Trowa watched Wufei. '_He claims he doesn't like her, but one will rarely find him anywhere else except by her side. Granted, they're always arguing about something, but he's always there...'_

He let his gaze trail to Cheyenne's pretty brown face. He took in her sunset-colored hair falling over her shoulders and the gray eyes that were hooded now from reading. He allowed his eyes to take in all of her: the bright orange T-shirt and blue jean shorts with orange and gray tennis shoes; the cocoa brown legs, slender and smooth; the petite fingers, so soft, that held the book carefully in her left hand. '_And then...always above her, always beside her...' _Trowa's eyes met Wufei's. '_Him.'_

Wufei's eyes narrowed when he caught Trowa's gaze. "What's wrong with you?" he asked. The group looked up, startled, and turned to Trowa who only stared back.

"What do you mean?" Trowa asked finally.

"You're looking at me as if you have something to say."

"Do you consider me your friend, Wufei?" he asked slowly.

Wufei's eyes narrowed further, remembering their earlier conversation well. '_What is he getting at?'_ "Yeah, why?"

"No reason," Trowa told him instantly, closing his eyes and bowing his head. "Well there is a reason. But it's too complicated to explain right now…"

'_He's mocking me,'_ Wufei growled angrily. '_But, why? What's his problem now?'_

The rest of the group, failing to understand the exchange between the two, looked at each other curiously and then returned to their work. Duo suddenly grabbed Kaila's hand and led her out the patio door to discuss something in private.

Trowa watched them go. "Ah, it's about time that two who know they are meant for each other finally come together as one to realize each other's worth," he said out of nowhere. The rest looked at him strangely except for Cheyenne who was practically drooling.

"Trowa, that was beautiful!" she purred.

"That was crap," Wufei told her seriously.

Cheyenne turned back to Wufei and smacked his arm. "It was not! Why can't you come up with pretty stuff to say like Trowa?"

"Because Trowa's gay," Wufei answered with a shrug.

"You are?" Yumi peered at the spiky haired young man curiously. "I mean, it doesn't change our friendship or anything-"

"Trowa's not gay!" Quatre spoke up for his friend and then turned to him. "Are you?"

Trowa said nothing (as usual) but simply gave Wufei a chilly stare. He then abruptly turned and walked out.

"Trowa!" Cheyenne called. "Way to go, Wufei." She placed her book down and quickly followed the guy. Yumi and Quatre stared at Wufei in disbelief.

"Honestly, you can be a real jerk at times," Quatre sighed.

"Yeah, do you have a reason for being this way or are you just crazy?" Yumi added.

Wufei grabbed Cheyenne's Gundam manual. "Leave my mental state out of this, Woman," he growled and left the room.

**(*)**

Duo and Kaila, completely unaware of the drama going on inside, stared up at the sky side by side. They were sitting on a patio swing and rocking gently back and forth. It was extremely peaceful outside the arcade as long as the patio door was closed. The only sounds were of the birds chirping cheerfully, the squeaking of the swing's chains and the slight whistle of the wind. Kaila smiled and laid her head on Duo's shoulder, completely relaxed.

Duo, on the other hand, was a wreck. Sweat formed on his forehead and every two seconds he tugged at his collar. '_Just do it, Trowa said. The feelings are mutual, Trowa said, but what if he's wrong...?'_

"Duo?"

"_WHAT_?" He jumped at the sound of his name. "Er, I mean, w-what?"

Kaila didn't raise her head but hid a smile, checking her nails. "You seem kinda jumpy today, Braid-Boy."

Duo cleared his throat and wiped sweat from his forehead. "O-of-of course not! W-What would I be n-nervous about?"

"Oh..." Kaila trailed off, smiling. "I thought you wanted to ask me something..."

"N-n-n-n-no! I m-mean, yes. I mean," Duo growled. "Darn it Kaila, do you want to be my girl or not?"

"Aggressive, aren't we?" She toyed but when he didn't respond she took her head off his shoulder to look at him. Duo was, for once, looking very serious as he awaited her answer so she turned serious as well and nodded once, slowly.

He smiled in relief and leant in for a kiss.

Kaila closed her eyes in response.

Heero opened the door and sneezed.

"Wha-?" Duo drew back and turned to the reserved young man. "Hey, buddy, do you mind?"

"No," Heero went over to the rail to drink his Coke calmly. (Btw, Coke is bad for you!) Duo laughed at that but Kaila glared at him.

"C'mon, Duo. Let's go somewhere we can be alone," She grabbed his hand and led him back into the lounge. They were greeted with an almost empty room. Yumi was just packing up and getting ready to go.

"Hey guys, I was just leaving." She had a troubled look on her face. "Cheyenne went to go talk to Trowa, Quatre went to the bathroom and Wufei..." She shrugged and turned towards the patio. "I'll be back," she added and headed out to the patio.

Kaila and Duo looked at each other until Duo grinned the widest grin he had in a while and flopped down onto a couch. "You wanna be alone, huh? Will this do?"

Kaila laughed and plopped next to him. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and leant close while she placed her arms around his neck.

This time there were no interruptions.

**(*)**

Cheyenne shook her head as she scanned the parking lot, looking for any sign of Trowa. When she couldn't find him, she grumbled and leant against the arcade wall. '_He's probably in the guy's bathroom or something,' _she sighed, flicking some hair out her face and closing her eyes. '_Trowa... he's so sweet, I hope he's not really gay so I can…' _She stopped her thoughts. '_Wait, s__o I can what? I'm over him, remember?'_

But she'd noticed how extremely nice Trowa had been to her over the past month. In fact, the more he opened up to her, the meaner Wufei seemed to get. '_He can't be jealous...'_ She laughed at the very thought. '_I mean, before I thought that maybe Wufei and me could've…but no, that's squashed now too. At least I think so. Wait, why don't I believe myself...? Is it because I don't want to?'_

"Woman?"

Cheyenne grunted as she opened her eyes. Her feelings were completely mixed. "What, _Man_?"

Wufei smirked as he approached her. "What are you doing out here anyway?"

"Don't worry about it, why are you stalking me?"

"I'm _not._ I just thought you'd want this back." He flung the pilot's manual at her.

She caught it easily with one hand and tucked it under her arm. "Thanks, 'preciate it." She quickly turned to go. When he started to walk with her, she stopped and glared at him. "Yo, you don't have to follow me everywhere, Wufei. Geez, all you do is terrorize me, yell at me and criticize me. I'm tired of it, okay?"

"Okay," he responded quickly.

She blinked. That was way too easy. "I mean it!"

"Okay."

"I really mean it!" She was practically screaming now. He seemed to be mocking her with those black eyes of his and she couldn't read anything from them.

His brow furrowed in confusion. "I said, okay."

"You are impossible!" she screeched.

"What is your problem, Woman?" He looked at her like she was insane.

"Do you even know my name?"

He allowed a brief confused flicker to display across his face just to annoy her further. It worked of course. She gritted her teeth in frustration and he smiled inwardly. '_Of course I know it, Cheyenne. I toy with it in my mind every day and I wonder-'_

"Wufei, just leave me alone from now on, okay?" She was clearly pushed to her limit this time. "Don't talk to me except during training. Don't look at me except during training. Don't even _breathe_ at me except during training! You get it? I don't feel like having any more pointless conversations with you!" With that, she turned her back on him and walked off.

He stared at her back in shock. It sounded like she actually meant it that time. Had he really been _that_ evil to her? '_I can't help it. Nataku withstood my ravings...but you're not Nataku, are you?'_ "Guess you're not as strong as I gave you credit for," he spat.

Cheyenne didn't even bother turning around. "Oh ouch. You broke my heart." When he muttered some choice words in Chinese at her, she shocked the heck out of him when she answered very promptly: "_Xie-xie_." (Thank you.) Wufei stared at her with his mouth wide open. She turned around triumphantly and was pleased to see the look on his face. "_Wo gou le_," she added. (I've had enough.)

Wufei cocked his head. "_Wo shuo hua ni ting de dong ma_?" (You understand what I am saying?)

"_Yaoshi shuo de kuai, jiu bu tai dong_." (If you speak fast, then I don't quite understand.)

"I don't believe this..." he muttered.

She smirked at him. "Of course not, _zai-jian_." (Goodbye.) She turned to walk away but he trotted up to her.

"Wait, Woman!"

"Wufei..." she warned. But when he caught up he only stared into her eyes as he had done a month ago. She stared back, hating herself for not being able to tear away.

'_Not Nataku and yet more...am I falling for this chick?' _He leant forward…and kissed her. Cheyenne stared up at him in surprise but didn't dare pull back. When he gently pulled away, he smirked down at her.

She stared at him with her mouth open. "Wufei...what the heck was that for?" she asked bluntly, not meaning for it to come out that way.

He frowned darkly. '_Wait, what the heck am I doing?' _ He clutched his head.

"Woman, you'll be the death of me! You are not Nataku! _ Toikakete mo toikakete mo kuzurenai nara, sore ga seigi da_!" he screamed in Japanese and ran off towards his motorcycle, completely flabbergasting Cheyenne..

"What? Wait! Wufei!" She called after him. **(Alliteration!)**

"_Ore wa mada arukitsuzuketai, mitsumete iru no ha yami no kanata dake_!" Wufei screamed, dashing as fast as he could go (which was pretty fast), hopping onto his bike and peeling out of parking lot before Cheyenne had a chance to think.

She ran after him but to no avail. She tripped and fell to her knees on the ground and sat in the parking lot breathing heavily and clutching her book to her chest. After a moment, she touched her lips lightly; still faintly feeling his lips on hers.

"Wufei...why...why did you do that?"

'_Yes, Wufei...why?' _Trowa asked inwardly from behind Cheyenne. He leant back against the arcade and watched the Chinese guy speed off. '_What are you trying to do...?'_

**(For the Japanese impaired, Wufei said-more or less-first: "If it does not crumble no matter how I question it, that is justice!" and second: "I only want to continue walking, only gazing at the darkness!" Yup, he's a pret-ty weird guy...but aren't they all? Lyrics from his songs are anyway...)**

**(*)**

"Heero?"

"…?"

"I've got a couple of questions for ya," Yumi walked up with her backpack over one shoulder.

Heero didn't look at her but continued to sip his Coke. "I might answer, I might not," he replied.

"Fair enough. Easy question first, this is February right?"

He nodded at her. "Next question."

"I wasn't done, Psycho," she huffed and continued. "If this is February and we're in Canada, then why the heck is everyone walking around in shorts and T-shirts?"

He continued to look ahead at the grass beyond the patio fence. "Who said we were in Canada?" he asked finally.

Yumi was completely confused by that. "Um...my plane ticket?"

"That's interesting, considering if you asked Kaila and Cheyenne where we were, they would answer 'somewhere in Europe'."

"Europe? Wha…oh…" Yumi trailed off, slowly understanding.

"Yes, our location is secret, but we let students think they're going to another country for obvious reasons."

"So where are we then?"

He looked at her from the corners of his eyes. "Somewhere on Earth."

She narrowed her eyes and held up two fingers. "Question two, smart mouth."

"Is?"

"You're from Tokyo, right?"

"Why?"

"Your accent...it's different from mine, but I know you're from Japan."

"I'm not, Yumi."

"You're not what?"

He shrugged. "I'm not from Japan."

"But...you're Japanese...aren't you?" She was utterly confused. She hadn't intended for her questions to be this complicated.

He turned to look straight into her eyes. "Listen well, Yumi. Everything that you're training for is not intended for earth combat. Cheyenne learning how to fly a Gundam, Kaila learning how to tap into "foreign" computers and your non-gravitational training bouts are not just things we made up." Yumi could only stare as he continued. "We're preparing you for outer space, Yumi. We're going into outer space to fight the Shadow Walkers. We'll be in outer space soon. Outer space...is where I'm from."

Yumi's mouth opened in shock and she took a couple of steps back from Heero. "You…you're an alien?"

He stared at her. It was as if he wanted to roll his eyes, but couldn't. "No, Yumi, I'm from a space colony."

"I don't understand, Heero."

"Relena will explain it all soon."

"Soon?"

"You will face the Shadows soon."

"Heero…"

"Third question?" he cut her off abruptly and turned back to look out over the rail.

She sighed and closed her eyes. So much was going on that she didn't understand and right when she thought she'd grasped it… "Heero, why are you acting so funny, that's my last question."

"What are you talking about?"

"I heard that you didn't want to fly _Blizzard-Cry_ but Quatre told me that you were once the leader of the Gundams or something like that. You were the best. So why have you given up flying now?" Heero didn't respond, but her words seemed to get to him. The knuckles on his left hand were white as they gripped the railing. For once, Yumi's heart softened towards the aloof young man and she laid a hand on his shoulder. "Heero, what is it? What's wrong, huh?"

"And you care because?" he half-growled.

She narrowed her eyes and removed her hand. "Whatever, you're right, I shouldn't care. See you at training. Bye." With that, she walked back into the lounge, more confused than ever.

Heero continued to stare at the grass beyond, looking inwardly at himself. Flying…he'd promised himself that he would never fly a Gundam again. After That Day, he'd continued to help the guys with their missions but always from behind the scenes and never in a mobile suit.

He raised his face to the sky and closed his eyes. Would he be needed for this mission? Would _Wing-Zero_ be needed? "Relena…" he whispered as the wind blew.

**(Why did he whisper her name? I dunno.)**

**(*)  
**

"Do you need help, Cheyenne?" Trowa asked, coming up behind her.

She was still on her knees in the arcade parking lot, looking completely lost and disoriented. "Oh…Trowa…yes."

He reached down, gently gripped her by the shoulders and pulled her to her feet. "Been talking to Wufei, huh?" he said, attempting to make a joke. She glanced at him finally, meeting him with the soft gray eyes that he found himself wanting more and more as the days passed. '_But Wufei is in my way…why?'_

"Yeah, he's succeeded in confusing me more."

"He's good for that," he nodded. She laughed a little and he smiled at her. '_Man, I just want to hold her…'_

"Trowa…" She moved closer to him, making his heart beat faster.

"Yes?" he asked quickly, not showing his inner feelings.

"Who is Nataku?"

His heart dropped. _'Why do you care about him, Cheyenne? All he does is torment you.'_ "Why?" he asked aloud.

She spread her hands. "I don't know. I mean, all this time I thought it was just a nickname or something but the guy names EVERYTHING Nataku. His motorcycle, his Gundam, his pencils, his CD player, his combs, his socks…I mean, come on now, his SOCKS?"

"Perhaps it is better if I don't disclose this information to you, Shy," Trowa started slowly.

She frowned at her friend. "What do you mean?"

"It will not help you."

"What?"

"You won't like the answer."

"Trowa, what are you getting at?" she asked in frustration. Trowa closed his eyes and held her hand in his, thus making her very nervous. "Is Nataku his evil twin or somethin'?" she ventured.

"Nataku's his wife, Shy."

Cheyenne was speechless and her eyes widened. Then she looked at the ground, not knowing how to react.

He squeezed her hand. "I know. He doesn't talk about Nataku the person much, but they were married when he was thirteen or something."

"THIRTEEN?" She tore her hand away from his. "Is that even legal?"

"Shy…"

"And all this time I thought he liked me."

"Cheyenne-"

"And he's walking around with a wife!"

"She's dead," Trowa said.

Cheyenne stopped ranting and glanced up at him, her eyes becoming soft. "Dead…how?"

Trowa closed his eyes. "During battle-"

"Wait, is that why he's so adamant about not letting me fly?" she asked excitedly, feeling things click in her mind. "Is that why he always pushes me to fight to the best of my ability? Why he's always following me around?" She looked at him for confirmation. "Right, Trowa…?"

"You do…resemble her…" he answered reluctantly. "I saw a picture of her once a while back, but you're nothing like her."

"Oh Wufei, why didn't you tell me before?" Her eyes narrowed in firm resolve. "I gotta talk to him! I mean for real. About us."

"Cheyenne." '_Is this destiny? Can I never reach her?'_

"I gotta get home! How do I get home?"

"Cheyenne…" '_I saw her first. It's not fair. He said he didn't like her…'_

"Oh that's right! Quatre!" She was off and running back towards the arcade. "Thank you, Trowa! For everything!"

"Cheyenne!" he called. '_Please, give me a chance. I can treat you so much better than this!' _

"Call me!" she replied and entered the doors.

Trowa stared gloomily in the parking lot with his hands to his side and his eyes straight ahead. "I like you… a lot…"

His words fell on deaf ears.


	11. Chapter 11 Getting There

**11) Getting There**

"The Shadow Walkers do not reside here on Earth. Their main base is a space station named Colony Twelve," a tall middle-aged woman named Sally Po told them.

The day had arrived. The entire group sat inside a large empty classroom. After the briefing everything would finally be explained to them and then the Gundam guys and girls would be off on their first mission together.

Cheyenne's stomach was full of butterflies as she listened to Professor Po, but deep inside her heart was confused. She stole a glance at Wufei who sat as far away from her as possible on the right side of the room. He didn't look back at her, just like he hadn't looked at her for the past week and a half. Training with him had gone from bad to worse. The tension in the room was always apparent and he did what she'd requested; he gave her no more special attention but simply trained her without the sarcastic remarks, the glares and the extra help. And when training was over she didn't see him for the rest of the day since he had a full proof way of avoiding her. It was like training with a funky ex-boyfriend but they had never even gone out!

She sighed and shook her head, wondering why things had to be that way. '_I just had to go and open my big mouth, didn't I?_'

Trowa sat behind her watching her expression, and he shook his head as well. He didn't understand why she allowed herself to go through the torture when she could just have _him_. He looked over at Wufei and glared, wondering why he was still an obstacle in his path when he wasn't even doing anything.

Wufei's thoughts were his own as he stared straight ahead at the chalkboard, chewing calmly on a pencil.

Quatre and Yumi sat directly in the front with Heero in-between them. Yumi was nervous as well, knowing that the first part of the mission depended solely on her. This made Quatre nervous too and he constantly fretted over her, not that she minded at all.

Duo and Kaila sat behind them, side by side. Their relationship made a lot of students jealous because of the casualness of it, the laid-backness, and the way they just looked too darn good together! Duo, the most popular guy in school, and Kaila, the sexiest freshman by far...together! Most thought it wasn't fair...

Sally Po continued: "The Shadow Walker's goal is to rid the planet of all human life by taking us out with a single blow. This..." She placed her pointer on the chalkboard, "is a new Gundam they've made from the _Blizzard-Cry_ prototype. They call it the _Desert-Howl_ and it...is...deadly." She emphasized her last three words with a loud tap against the chalkboard, partly for emphasis, and partly to get Wufei's attention. He switched his glance to her immediately but kept chewing on his pencil.

"The situation here has become fairly critical," Sally continued. "Perhaps you've noticed that you have not seen the president's daughter around here lately-"

"Nope, we sure haven't seen Rolanda. What'd you do with her?" Kaila asked.

Sally closed her eyes at the misuse of Relena's name but then shook her head and let it slide. "We've hidden her," she replied. "The Shadow Walkers plan to strike very soon. That's why you eight are heading to Colony Twelve today."

"Today?" Cheyenne gasped.

"But we barely know our mission," Yumi added.

Sally shrugged her shoulders. "My job is mainly to answer any questions you may have about the Shadow Walkers. The mission itself will be explained to you en route. Are there any questions?"

"Who heads the Shadows?" Heero asked.

"Her name is Delia Stead. She's an heiress whose parents were millionaires. It is rumored that she killed them herself."

"Man…" Yumi whistled.

"After getting the money, she formed the Shadow Walkers: men and women trained in the way of espionage and mobile suits. They are something like ninjas. It is said that you will never know when you are attacked by the Shadows because you will never see them."

"Geez, how do we know that there isn't a Shadow Walker among us, then?" Cheyenne asked.

Sally gave her a look that clearly said, "_Please_". "Our technology is extremely advanced. There's no possible way that we could've recruited a Shadow Walker directly to Medora University."

"There's _n__o_ way?" Cheyenne raised an eyebrow.

"None," Sally huffed. "Don't ask questions about things you clearly do not know or understand."

Cheyenne rolled her eyes and leant back in her chair. "Whatever..."

"Any other questions?" Sally asked, looking around the room. Her eyes lingered on Wufei for just a little longer than they should have in Cheyenne's opinion.

"Why do they want to rid the Earth of its inhabitants?" Yumi asked. "Isn't that kinda extreme?"

Sally nodded. "Undoubtedly. However, Delia feels that only her Shadows are pure and so they deserve to live on Earth by themselves, repopulating the planet with their own kind."

"Women can't leave well enough alone," Wufei mumbled.

Yumi nodded in agreement for once. "Yeah! Who up and told this Delia chick that the world was hers to own?"

"And how are her Shadows so pure if they go around killing people secretly?" Cheyenne added.

"Exactly. In other words, the chick's insane," Kaila yawned and the girls nodded in agreement. "Are we going to be floating around in this Colony, Professor Po?" she added. Yumi had long since told the girls about Heero's strange answers and how he was from space and so was this Colony Twelve.

Sally nodded again. "Yes, but not until Yumi does away with the security system as will be explained later. And that's only in the base headquarters, by the way. The rest of Colony Twelve should be stable enough to walk around on the ground. Any more questions?" she asked quickly.

"Um...how do we get there?" Yumi asked. "To Colony Twelve?"

"Thought you'd never ask," Sally smiled and turned. "Dorothy?"

As the dismissed group stood up, a girl about their age walked slowly into the room. She had extremely long blonde hair way down to her ankles, bright blue eyes and…

"Ew! Look at her eyebrows!" Yumi whispered loudly. "They're like arrows!"

"Why the heck are they so long? They go past her forehead!" Kaila added. By that time the two were practically screeching with delight.

Cheyenne covered her mouth, trying not to laugh. "I'm not even going to add, you've said it all!"

Dorothy narrowed her eyes at them. "I can hear you, you know."

"Duh!" Yumi smirked. When Dorothy narrowed her eyes further, Yumi ducked. "What are you gonna do, take one off and cut me with it?"

Dorothy only glowered at her and gently snaked a hand to Quatre's waist. "Oh, Quatre! It's been so long since we've seen each other!" She hugged him tight.

"Er...um...Miss Dorothy, really you mustn't...you can't..." Quatre looked over Dorothy's shoulder to shudder at Yumi's glare.

"Well, of COURSE I can, Quatre? Who's stopping me?" Dorothy asked.

Yumi grabbed Dorothy's shoulder and whirled her roughly around to face her. "That would be me. I'm not scared of you, Blondie. Quatre's mine, so hands off." With that, Yumi huffed and followed Sally out the door.

"Man, you sure got punked," Duo told Dorothy with an arm around Kaila's shoulder. Dorothy simply left the room and Heero followed her out without a word. Kaila, Duo, Trowa, Wufei, Quatre and Cheyenne tarried in the classroom.

Kaila smirked. "Ew, Wufei, you've got a forty-something year old woman in love with you."

Wufei put his pencil behind his ear and narrowed his eyes at her. "What are you talking about, Woman?"

"Professor Po! She has her eye on you!"

"That's ridiculous!" Cheyenne and Wufei said at the same time. They stopped and stared at each other until Wufei abruptly turned and left.

"What an awful idea, Kaila." Cheyenne sighed and left the room with Trowa right behind her.

"Hey, Quatre, do you really let Yumi just claim you like that?" Duo asked the rich young man.

Quatre smiled and shrugged. "I...I kinda like it." Kaila and Duo rolled their eyes as they began to follow everyone else.

"Are there any little wanna-be girlfriends hanging around _you_ that I should know about, Duo?" Kaila asked lightly.

Duo grinned and shook his head. "Nope."

"No?" Quatre wondered. "But what about Hilde? I think she-"

"What the-? Shut UP, Quatre!" Duo slapped the blonde on the back of his head and grinned helplessly at Kaila. "Honestly, I don't know where he gets this stuff."

"Mm-hmm," Kaila told him, walking ahead. When she had disappeared around the corner, Duo's face lost its grin.

"What are you tryin' to do huh?" he snapped at Quatre.

"Sorrrryyyy."

**(*)**

Dorothy led the group to a large black stealth fighter jet in the hangar reserved just for them. The only ones flying would be a couple of pilots to guide the jet, the eight of them, and their guide, Miss Une.

After Dorothy gave the girls death glares, she and Sally Po left the eight to board the jet by themselves. They stood in the entryway of the stealth fighter and it looked more like a small apartment complex inside. They waited on Miss Une to give them more information.

"I like her," Cheyenne said about Une. "Professor Une's really nice, like really, really nice. And very forgiving! One time, I forgot my homework and I told her Duo ate it, and she believed me!"

Duo paled. "Hey! I don't appreciate you using me for your alibis, Cuz."

"Sorry, Cuz, it was the first thing out of my mouth," Cheyenne grinned. "Anyway, you'll really, really like her. And she's soooo pretty. She has this beautiful long layered brown hair and deep brown eyes-"

"We know Miss Une," Heero interrupted from his place against the wall.

Cheyenne paused. "Huh? You do?"

"Yes..." Quatre began gently. "Miss Une is rather...how should I put it..?"

"Psycho?" Duo suggested.

"Um, she's schizophrenic," Quatre finished.

"Say what? This chick has different personalities?" Kaila asked.

Yumi's mind was also blown. "Our guide is a freaking schizo? Greeeat, just great."

Cheyenne looked at them like they were crazy. "No, no, Miss Une is really patient and kind and-"

"SHUT UP! I'm here!"

Cheyenne turned around to see Miss Une behind her, only not looking like she usually did. Miss Une had her hair in a tight bun with tiny little glasses on her face. She wore a large red overcoat with white tights and knee high black boots and held a whip in her hand; a very large, long and lethal whip.

"Miss…Une?" Cheyenne asked, incredulous.

"I'm not going to tell you again," Une warned in a low voice. She snapped her whip and Cheyenne leapt behind Trowa. Wufei actually snorted at Cheyenne and she glanced over at him in surprise. Trowa quietly blocked her view of Wufei with his body and abruptly placed his arm around her shoulder, making Wufei snort again.

"What are you snorting at young man?" Miss Une demanded to know.

Wufei glared at her. "I will not tell a woman."

Miss Une gave him a deadly stare. "I hate you and everything you stand for, you killer of what was most beautiful. If it weren't for you, I'd have babies. Babies! But no, because of you, I'm stuck with a copy and a step-brat and nothing out of my own loins!"

The girls gaped and turned to Wufei.

"Long story," he muttered, obviously used to her behavior.

Une seethed but turned and pointed to a door down the hallway behind them. "Down there to your left. Open that door and go down the stairs, then head to the right. Around the corner you will find two doors. On the left is where the LADIES sleep and on the right is where the GENTLEMEN sleep. Understand? That way you won't make babies!"

"We won't, not with the abstinence Quatre's practicing," Yumi giggled.

Quatre blushed. "Ah…Yumi…"

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

"Yes, Miss Une," most of the group replied immediately. Only Heero and Wufei kept their mouths shut.

"Good. Meet me here for briefing tomorrow morning at 0900!" she ordered.

The group filed out into the hallway but the girls trailed the boys before stopping completely as they reached the stairs.

"Something bugging you, Shy?" Kaila asked.

"It's…Wufei..." Cheyenne began helplessly.

Kaila shrugged. "No way. Forget him, girl. He is _so_ old news. Go with your first instincts and stick with Trowa."

"Yeah, Trowa's so nice and sensitive, Shy-chan," Yumi added. "I don't even see what the problem is. Wufei's a jerk, you know?"

Cheyenne closed her eyes and nodded. "I know, I know. It's just that I-I don't feel that way about Trowa anymore. And Wufei-"

"Please. You're better off with Trowa," Yumi cut in. "He'll treat you right."

Cheyenne only sighed and Kaila finally noticed her friend's dilemma. She gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Okay, if you're having this much trouble deciding, Shy, then maybe…maybe your heart _does_ belong to Wufei."

Cheyenne looked up at her, wide-eyed. "But that's impossible, right? I told him not to talk to me anymore. He doesn't even remember my name! He and I are...we're...all wrong for each other."

"Are you really?"

"Yes, they are," Yumi mumbled.

Kaila glared at her and then turned back to Cheyenne. "I'm not too sure, Shy, cuz you were happiest when you were around him and he was more social when he was with you. Now he's back to keeping to himself and you're all sour apples lately, you know?" Kaila shrugged. "You're good for him and he had a positive impact on you."

The girls were silent for a bit.

"I don't know why, but...he really did, Shy-chan. Kaila's right," Yumi admitted grudgingly.

"So you're saying..."

"We can't make the choice for you, Shy. Just go with what you feel is best," Kaila told her.

"Basically you two just need to kiss, make whoopie and get it over with," Yumi smirked.

"Yeah, you have way too much...er...body tension..." Kaila added.

"WHAT?" Cheyenne yelled and then laughed, partly because her friends were great and partly because they had no idea that she and Wufei had already kissed. The others laughed with her and the serious moment passed.

"Whew, glad I'm not in a love triangle," Yumi said.

Kaila nodded. "I actually miss you two arguing all the time, it was kinda funny."

Cheyenne smiled at that. "I...thanks guys, I feel better now."

"GROUP HUG!" Yumi crowed and they gathered into a huge hug.

"Ahem."

All three slowly turned around to face a dangerous looking Miss Une, with arms crossed and her foot tapping against the floor. She began with eyes closed and a smile on her face. "Didn't I tell you…" Suddenly her eyes burst open and her whip lashed out. "TO GO TO YOUR ROOMS!"

"AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!"

She didn't have to tell them a third time.

**(*)**

Kaila lay on her bed pad later that night, looking up at the ceiling with her eyes wide open. The rooms weren't exactly comfortable or anything. They were huge and empty with no windows and three separate bed pads on the floor. Yumi's was fuchsia, Cheyenne's gray and Kaila's violet. They knew whose beds were who's because their names had been sewn on top of their bed pads. Beside that lay new clothes, including black and violet leather-looking-Batman-things for the girls except for Cheyenne who had a velvet black pilot outfit. There were also bedtime clothes which merely consisted of tank tops in their separate colors and…spandex shorts.

After much griping and complaining about their bedtime outfits, Yumi and Cheyenne finally grumbled themselves to sleep. Kaila however, was wide-awake, completely excited about the day that was coming. She was going to hack. And she was going to hack directly into the Shadow Walker's computers, considering that Yumi got into the building and did away with the security alarms first.

She sighed. Everything in the plan made everyone completely dependent on one other. If one person messed up then there was little leeway for the other to get out alive. And Po had warned them about Wufei and Heero who had tendencies to go off and do their own thing.

A little troubled now about the mission, Kaila sat up in bed, running a hand through her long blue-violet hair. She wondered what Duo was doing and smiled at the thought of him. Never had she met anyone like him in her life! He was sooo right for her...and his braid was too cute. And his cute little grin and those big aquamarine eyes...even that all-black-and-red clothing style had become cute to her.

She stopped her inward gushing of Duo when music drifted to her ears. She cocked her head, sure that it was coming from the guy's room. Quickly she leant over and tapped Cheyenne who lashed out with an arm that she barely dodged. "Hey!" Kaila narrowed her eyes at her best friend and jabbing a finger in her arm.

"Owie!" Cheyenne cried, sitting up and rubbing her arm.

Yumi popped an eye open and yawned. "What's the deal, you guys?"

Cheyenne pouted. "Yeah, Kaye, what's with the abuse?"

"Do you hear that?" Kaila asked, motioning for them to be quiet.

After a few minutes of listening, Cheyenne perked up. "Music!"

"From the guy's room," Yumi added.

Kaila nodded. "What do you think they're doing in there?"

"Dunno, let's go check it out," Cheyenne got up to stretch and then the three snuck across the hall, slowly opened the door a crack and peeked inside. They were greeted with a strange sight.

"YEAH! Go Wufei, go Wufei!" Duo, dressed in a black tank top, chanted as he and Quatre in a tan one, did the Cabbage Patch. Heero, in his usual green tank top, was off in one corner doing the Running Man and Trowa in a red one, was raising the roof. Wufei, in a blue tank top, grabbed his pencil, put it to his mouth and began to rap.

"Hey...this...that...Chinese boy, Wufei

All you haters better get outta my way.

I'd like to tell my Gundam posse what's up,

'Cuz they know I'm the man, and I'm hooked up.

I got a motorcycle and it's a real pretty thang

If you don't have a ride, then you just can't hang.

One look at me and everybody says, "dang."

And by the way, my last name is Chang.

No, I don't wanna pass this mic,

Cuz my rhymes are smoooth and this flow is tyte.

Everything that comes out my mouth sounds so nice

And I could do this all freaking night.

So now you're asking what's the point of this song?

I dunno, everybody get your dance on!"

"Yeah!" Quatre cried, doing the Tootsie Roll. Duo fell onto his back in laughter as he watched the guys play around. Cheyenne had fallen on her own back with tears in her eyes at Wufei's rap. Kaila was holding her stomach, doubled over at Quatre's dancing and Yumi was grinning ear to ear but shaking her head in shock at the sight of Heero actually participating.

Suddenly, Cheyenne's foot hit the door and it slammed open, revealing the three girls to all the guys. Things got awkward for a minute and Quatre, Duo and Trowa grew red-faced at the sight of them. Wufei glared and turned to face a wall while Heero stopped his dancing and crossed his arms. But then with a sudden grin, Duo raced over to Kaila and pulled her into the room.

"Turn the music up, Q! Paaaaaaaaar-tay! Party ova here!" he yelled.

Quatre laughed and turned the music up just as Janet Jackson's old _Rhythm Nation_ song came on. Yumi giggled when Quatre came over to her and grabbed her hands, proceeding to do the robot with her. Cheyenne jumped up and raced into the room, not to be left behind, and shut the door behind her. Trowa came up and without a word began dancing with her. She grinned and danced right along with him, for once feeling all of her cares wash away.

"What are you guys doing?" Kaila laughed as she danced closely with Duo.

Her boyfriend shrugged. "We always hold a party right before we go into battle. Kinda like living the day like it's your last. It gets you completely relaxed and gets any goofy thoughts out of your head. It also allows you to focus completely on the mission," he recited as if taught.

"Thought that up all by yourself, huh?" she asked sarcastically.

Duo laughed, shook his head and spun her around. "Nope, this was all Heero's idea!"

"Heero?" Kaila asked in surprise, allowing herself to be spun and then ending up in Duo's arms. "Now THAT'S a surprise!"

As Yumi danced with Quatre, she noticed that everyone was having fun except for Wufei, who sat down against a wall, twirling his pencil in his hand. Although he tried to hide it, she saw where his gaze trailed every five seconds; to Trowa and Cheyenne. '_So he likes her after all?'_ Yumi wondered. She decided to do her good deed for the day and called to him. "Hey Wufei? Got another rap for us?" she asked.

He stared at her and then, totally out of character, nodded. "Quatre, change the song!" he called out. Quatre nodded and like a DJ, spun the CD to mix two songs together. Wufei closed his eyes and began to flow.

"It's the little dragon once again, with the mic in hand...

It appears that my rhymes are in demand…"

Everyone had stopped dancing to listen except for Heero who was steadily jamming and at the moment doing the Moonwalk. Cheyenne stared at Wufei and a small smile appeared on her face. '_Even if don't like me, Wufei, I'm glad you came along…'_

When Wufei's second rap was over he simply bowed at his skill and abruptly left the room, giving a glance to Cheyenne as he went. She wondered what the glance meant but before she could respond, Trowa pulled her close to him and demanded that Quatre start up another song. Quatre did so and the party continued with a Soul Train line.

Trowa smiled at Cheyenne. "Your file says you can dance up a storm, so let's see it." He did his version of a grin which looked more like a flash of teeth.

Cheyenne laughed. "Okay! Let's get this party started right!" She was the first one down the Soul Train line.

Although the little "party" lasted well into the night, Wufei never returned.

**(*)**

The next morning was chaos when everyone overslept and then fought each other for the ONE bathroom with the ONLY mirror on the jet. Kaila brushed her teeth over Duo's shoulder as he methodically brushed his hair.

"Thirty-five, thirty-six, thirty-seven," Duo counted each brushstroke.

"You've got to be kidding me," Kaila gurgled with a mouth full of toothpaste.

Meanwhile, Quatre washed his face, Yumi checked her makeup, Cheyenne combed her hair, Wufei tied his hair back and Heero gargled. When Heero finished, he nodded at the group and left the seven-person bathroom, allowing Trowa to come in.

Once he was gone, Yumi eyed the door curiously. "What's up with him lately?"

"Forty-two, forty-three, forty-four…what do you mean?" Duo asked.

"Heero," Yumi said. "He's been acting really...normal...lately."

"Yeah, like one of us. I noticed that too," Cheyenne agreed.

"Yeha, anioenroge..." Kaila added.

Duo tapped her nose with his hairbrush. "Don't say it 'til you spit it, dear," he smirked. Kaila grinned and continued to brush.

"Is he?" Trowa asked. He elbowed his way between Wufei and Cheyenne to check his hair. Wufei gave him a death glare and left the bathroom, muttering to himself.

"Yup, and when Heero starts acting normal, that means something's really wrong! I wonder what's goin' on in that brain of his?" Cheyenne asked, inwardly wondering where Wufei went. The other girls nodded in agreement.

Kaila spit out her toothpaste and wiped her mouth. "I said, "it's strange" before," she turned around to sit on the large counter. "And now that I think about it, it's scary."

"No kidding!" Yumi laughed. Finished with her hair she preceded to comb Quatre's who sat obediently still. "It's time to run for the hills!"

"Oh be nice," Quatre said which won him a warm hug from Yumi.

"Yes," Trowa agreed. "I think he acts strangely before every battle we go into. And strange for Heero is normal for us."

"Weird," Cheyenne mumbled. They all fell silent for awhile with the only sound being Duo's methodic counting.

"Sixty two, sixty-three, sixty-four..."

Kaila, fed up with Duo's hair, resisted the urge to grab the brush and run out the room screaming wildly. '_But what was it he said? Last night was supposed to get out any funny antics, now is the time to be serious.'_ And so she watched quietly as he finished.

"Seventy-three, seventy-four, seventy-five! Done!" Duo grinned and dropped the hairbrush onto the counter, then bent and looked in the drawer for a rubber band.

"Can I braid it?" Kaila asked.

Duo found a rubber band and nodded. "Sure, it has to be perfect though," he added, turning around in front of her.

Kaila rolled her eyes and separated his shiny brown hair into three parts. "I'm sure if I can work with Shy's nappy hair, then I can do yours, Duo."

"I heaaaaaard that!" Cheyenne snapped.

"I knoooow!" Kaila grinned.

Immediately afterwards, Trowa sprayed some hairspray that irritated Cheyenne's eyes and nose. She coughed and excused herself from the bathroom, standing outside the door in relief. "That stuff has _got_ to be unhealthy for the planet," she muttered as she pulled uncomfortably at the silky-soft pilot's outfit. After a moment she decided to head to the mobile suit hangar to check on _Blizzard-Cry_.

**(*)**

Wufei sat in the cockpit of his mobile suit, _Shen-Long_. It was the same place he had spent the night before in meditation. He was trying to figure out what to do with himself and Cheyenne but he still hadn't come up with a valid conclusion.

"Nataku..." he sighed. Things had been easier when he'd been with her. Everything had been black and white but then she'd died with incredible injustice and he'd been longing for peace ever since. And now, SHE had come along, making him wonder and making him think about things he'd never cared about before, bringing something back to him that he had lost.

"Cheyenne..." he sighed as well. Then he frowned, remembering Trowa's rudeness to him as of late. "Ridiculous, over a woman?" Trowa could have her then if that's what he wanted. She would never be Wufei's anyway, no matter how much he thought about it. And he needed to STOP thinking about it, since longing for something he couldn't have only made him weak. And if there was anything Chang Wufei was, it wasn't WEAK.

He closed his eyes in sudden decision to give up on her and envisioned Nataku instead as he often did. However, something was different this time. This time she held a pained expression on his face...and this time she spoke to him.

"_Wufei, why are you using me as a wall to hide behind? Why am I the bars that hold you back?_"

Wufei sat straight up in his chair. Her words stung. "Meiran?" he spoke her real name in shock. She nodded and moved closer to him, extremely pale with her black hair sticking to her face as if wet. "What do you mean...?" he asked softly.

"_Your emotions, Scholar Boy, did you ever think about showing them?_" she asked in an affectionate teasing tone. Wufei's mouth dropped as she continued. "_Oh Wufei, don't shut your emotions away like this. Emotions are not weak; they are a part of us. They allow people to accept you._"

"I need no one to accept me-"

"_To understand you..._"

"Not needed."

"_To love you._"

"I...I..." he gulped painfully. '_Not needed, not needed!' _ his mind screamed, but something deep in his heart didn't quite believe it.

Meiran nodded, understanding. "_She is quite strong...stronger in will than I was. A good fighter, too. She would have made an interesting opponent in my day._"

"Meiran, she's no where near as strong as you."

"_Well, perhaps not in battle, but her inner strength is what makes her special. I don't want you to push her away because of me, Wufei. She is good for you._"

"But she-"

"_Is a Gundam pilot as I was, yes I know._"

"And you died," Wufei told her plainly.

Meiran closed her eyes. "_Death is a part of life, Wufei,_" she answered gently. "_But she is still there, she's an excellent pilot...and she is good for you._"

"But you were-"

"_We were both very young and too prideful for our own good. She is patient and can help you find your way back._"

"Find my way back?"

"_To your real strength and to other people as well. Don't shut them all away, Scholar Boy, don't fight the pain."_

"But you saw what happened when I kissed her." He involuntarily winced at the memory.

Meiran smiled slightly. "_She was surprised, Scholar Boy. That's not quite what she was expecting, neh?_"

"_Hai_," Wufei muttered in agreement. He hadn't expected himself to do something so stupid either. "Well, it won't happen again."

"_Because you don't want it to or because you're afraid she doesn't want to?_" Meiran suddenly snapped.

Wufei narrowed his eyes. "Meiran, I am not weak, I am strong!"

"_Do not be afraid of her_."

"Nataku…" '_Or am I weak, simply striving to be strong...?'_

"_Do not be afraid to be vulnerable._"

"You're making me question myself, Woman!"

"_That is good_," Meiran smiled as she began to fade. "_Oh and Wufei? Just because I am deceased does not mean that all women are weak. I certainly was not, so stop that."_

Wufei's eyes popped open and he stared around his cockpit in a daze. He brought both hands to his head and shook it back and forth. '_I don't believe it, I don't. It was just a dream, only a dream. Meiran wouldn't say those things. She doesn't know what I'm going through.'_ He was having a hard time convincing himself that he was right, though.

He heard a small sound and looked down to see someone walk into the hangar. She was wearing thick black boots, comfortable looking form-fitting black flight pants with a gun holster attached to one leg, a black turtleneck and a black vest with red and white stripes. The Gundam pilot uniform.

Soft reddish-brown hair tumbled down her back and she stood with her back to him, facing her Gundam. It was Cheyenne.

**(*)**

Cheyenne looked up at her Gundam with a wistful look. '_Today I'll fly you against an enemy with the sole purpose of destroying them.'_ She grabbed a lock of her hair and twisted it nervously around a finger. '_So_ _p__lease, please don't let me freak out in front of everybody, especially Wufei. I gotta show him how good I am.'_

She stopped her thoughts when she felt an odd presence behind _Blizzard-Cry_. Her eyes narrowed, wondering who it could be. Only the eight of them were on the plane besides Miss Une and the pilots. She'd left everybody in the bathroom except for Wufei, but she didn't sense him anywhere near her Gundam. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, focusing her thoughts as Wufei had taught her in his Wicked Wack Workout.

No…the figure definitely wasn't anyone she knew well. It was a tad bit too hostile to be a friend. Then who-

"AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Cheyenne was suddenly knocked onto the ground on her back as a person dressed in black ninja clothing leapt atop of her with a dagger, aiming for her neck. Cheyenne lost all focus and didn't know what to do at all; she only knew that she wanted the person OFF. She grunted and flipped the person over her head as she had been taught in class, then leapt to her feet, took her gun out of the holster attached to her leg and pointed it straight at the person in black, who had landed on their feet.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Cheyenne growled.

The ninja stood up and turned to her slowly with blue eyes glinting. "I am your Shadow. You are to die," the ninja answered in a hoarse, yet feminine voice. Then without warning she flung the dagger at Cheyenne's gun, knocking the weapon out of her hand. "Guns are for the weak, Gundam scum," she spat.

Cheyenne rushed at the Shadow. "Then fight me the right way!"

The Shadow kept still, then ran towards her and leapt clear over her head, kicking the pilot in the noggin as she did so. Cheyenne hit the floor hard, landing on her stomach as the Shadow laughed and retrieved her dagger. "Please. A fight with you would be pointless." The Shadow aimed and threw the dagger straight at Cheyenne's heart when she slowly turned over. There was nothing Cheyenne could do but watch the dagger that was going to end her life hurtle straight towards her.

A figure unexpectedly landed in front of Cheyenne and knocked the dagger away with a sword.

"Wufei?" she asked in disbelief.

He glared at her. "I was just beginning to respect you, Woman and now you're getting beat by a worthless Shadow? Your rolls are still sloppy, your defense is nonexistent and why in the world is your reaction time so slow? Get up and beat the crap out of this weak woman!"

"How dare you!" the Shadow snarled. She grabbed Cheyenne's gun and fired it at the two.

Cheyenne rolled out of the way, reaching into her boot as she did so. "I thought guns were for the weak!" she snapped and flung a small knife at the Shadow's hand, knocking the gun away while Wufei jumped high in the air. He yelled something in Chinese and brought his sword down hard on the Shadow's shoulder. Cheyenne winced as blood splattered all over _Blizzard-Cry_ and the Shadow screeched in pain.

Wufei stood menacingly over the Shadow for a moment and then cleaned and sheathed his sword. "I'm finished. I have no desire to fight with a weak woman." He turned his back on her and looked at Cheyenne with glittering black eyes. "Woman, make yourself useful. Interrogate her."

Cheyenne bit back a sharp reply but picked herself up and rushed over to the body. _'How embarrassing! He had to save my life! There's no way I'll get his respect now so why bother trying?'_ She took the mask off of the Shadow's face and gasped. "Dorothy? You're a Shadow?"

Dorothy looked up at her with eyes full of pain and hatred. "Congratulations on stating the obvious..." she spat. "War is beautiful and I'm always on the side of war!"

Cheyenne narrowed her eyes. "Didn't you get over that in the movie?"

"What?"

"Sorry, brain fart. Nevermind."

Wufei came and stood behind her. "C'mon, Woman, we've got to tell everyone about this," he said.

"Wufei..." Cheyenne turned to him curiously. "Where'd you come from?"

"I was checking on my Gundam, am I allowed to DO that?" he snapped. Cheyenne blinked and then smiled at him. Abruptly her smile turned into a huge grin, taking Wufei by surprise. "What are you smiling about, huh?" he asked uncertainly. Her grin widened and she leapt onto him, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, almost causing him to topple over. "WOMAN!" he roared.

"You're talking to me again, Wu-Wu! It's about time! You even instructed me like you would've in class! I won't fail you again, Wu-Wu!"

"_Wu-Wu?_" Dorothy clutched her throbbing arm with pain. "Spare me."

Wufei gritted his teeth. "Woman, detach yourself!"

Cheyenne did, grinning at him all the while. "I'll tie Dorothy up!" she said and hopped up _Blizzard-Cry_ to get some rope.

Wufei looked at her go with narrowed eyes, embarrassed that she was able to catch him off guard like that. As Cheyenne tied Dorothy up, he spent the whole time trying to convince himself that he hadn't enjoyed her hug, that Meiran was wrong, and that maybe…just maybe, if Meiran _wasn't_ wrong, that he actually had a chance...

**(*)**

Not much later the eight sat in the control room discussing what had happened in the hangar. Trowa and Kaila stood close beside Cheyenne, making sure she wasn't hurt as she finished her story.

"OOOH, lemme get a shot at her! She'll be worse off than she is now!" Kaila slammed her fist into her hand.

"Heck yeah! I already owe her a cheap shot for Quatre!" Yumi added.

"Save your energy for the fight against the Shadows on Colony Twelve," Miss Une calmly replied. Her "peaceful" side appeared to be in control now and her brown hair flowed over her shoulders in layers. "She is not our concern."

"But why was she trying to kill her?" Duo asked.

Cheyenne bit her lip in thought. "Probably 'cause I'm the one flying the _Blizzard- Cry_ Gundam. I don't think the Shadows want that out on the battlefield. Yay! Dangerous me!" She giggled like a little girl.

"Grow up," Wufei muttered. Cheyenne stuck her tongue out at him.

"So where's Dorothy now?" Yumi asked.

"In one of the holds. She won't be leaving anytime soon. Not with that injury," Miss Une explained.

"Good. Now what's our mission?" Heero asked, ready to get on with it at last.

Miss Une nodded seriously. "Your mission is broken down into five phases:

_Phase 1_: Getting Heero, Kaila and Yumi into the base. They will be aboard Quatre's Gundam, _Sand-Rock_. It should be fairly simple as Duo, Trowa, Wufei and Cheyenne will cover them, holding off any enemy fire.

_Phase 2_: Yumi slides in undetected and does away with the computer security systems, thus leading to Phase 3.

_Phase 3_: Kaila must hack into the Shadow's computer system, shutting down all fighter plane controls and getting any information we need. Heero will aid her and cover her back as well. Once Kaila's mission is complete, this leads to Phase 4.

_Phase 4_: Yumi will be able to move freely throughout the base and destroy anything she sees and then get out of there."

"Yes! I get to blow up stuff!" Yumi grinned.

"Best part of the job," Wufei mumbled.

Miss Une smiled at them and continued. "_Phase 5_: The Gundam pilots face off against the _Blizzard-Cry_ prototype, _Desert-Howl_, and destroy it. If you are lucky, you will be able to destroy it before it gets off the ground since Kaila should be able to tap into some of its circuits as well. But more than likely, its circuits are wired to a different system and therefore Delia Stead herself will be piloting the prototype. Please try to keep her alive if at all possible."

"And after that's over, we get our happy butts outta there, right?" Kaila asked.

"Yes, that is your mission," Miss Une concluded.

The group of eight nodded with determined looks on their faces.

"Mission...accepted," Heero and Kaila uttered at the same time. They stared at one another.

"That's my line," Heero told her.

Kaila rolled her eyes. "So sue me."

"I should."

"You're messing up the moment!" Cheyenne yelled.

Quatre just sighed. "Let's go. Please, no fighting."

Wufei found himself trying not to smile at the group's antics although he wouldn't let them see it. For once, he was beginning to embrace the feeling of belonging. Just a little.

**(Not like he'd give 'em a group hug though…)**


	12. Chapter 12 The Mission

**12) The Mission**

"Alright, let's do it!" Duo yelled. The pilots ran to the hangar and prepared to jump into their Gundams. Duo turned back to Kaila and saluted. "Don't do anything crazy, Kaila, we've got a date when this is over!"

"You do your job and I'll do mine, flyboy," Kaila replied softly. They smiled at each other, carrying a secret message, then Kaila turned and grabbed hands with Cheyenne and Yumi. They nodded, giving each other silent good-byes.

Cheyenne grinned, waved and ran off towards _Blizzard-Cry_. "C-ya!"

"Be careful!" Kaila yelled through cupped hands.

"Okay, _mom!_" Cheyenne grinned back.

Yumi turned to see Heero gazing at _Wing-Zero_, his old Gundam, and shook her head in disbelief. '_I still don't understand why he just won't fly the thing. What could have possibly happened in the past?'_

Heero hated the thought of just being dropped off somewhere, but it was his mission and so he would do it. He just couldn't bring himself to fly a Gundam again. He had sworn he wouldn't ever again. His days of killing things were over. Silently, he sat in Quatre's Gundam's hand with Kaila and Yumi.

"Yee-hah! We're outta here!" Duo crowed as all of the Gundams booted up. Duo's Gundam, _Death-Scythe,_ was the first one out of the hangar. _Heavy-Arms_, _Blizzard-Cry_, _Sand-Rock_, and _Shen-Long_ followed immediately after him into space.

Cheyenne didn't have time to admire the scenery of SPACE since they were all on their guard from that point on. She narrowed her eyes and forced herself to concentrate only on the mission and block all else from her mind. But still, one small happy thought crept into her head, '_EEE! I'm in space! This is too unreal!'_

Trowa's voice then came over her loudspeaker. "We've got company. It's a shame they should hasten their death by approaching us," he added nonchalantly.

Cheyenne looked at her radar and saw three enemy blips, then four, then five...then fifty. "Ha-hah! Looks like we got our work cut out for us!" she giggled.

Duo's laughter joined hers. "Right, Cuz. Let's show these guys what we're made of!"

"Wufei, keep to the back and take the first group; they're probably going to fly right past the rest of us. Trowa, take the ones towards the far right," Quatre's voice was smooth and calm, giving orders easily. "Duo, I want you to take the ones on the left and Cheyenne, your job is to take the ones that fly up the middle, that way the guys can turn and cover you if you need it. I'll take care of the last few real quick so I can drop off my "special delivery", then I'll come back and help you all out if you need it. Clear?"

"Roger," Trowa, Duo, Cheyenne and Wufei said at the same time.

'_This is it!'_ Cheyenne all of a sudden grew nervous at actually being in battle for the first time. She sent up a quick prayer to God that they would all survive. '_All right_, _t__ime to get busy. All of my training was for this, so here goes everything!'_

She bit down hard on her lip until Quatre gave them the signal to break formation. Straight away it seemed like the world was full of gunfire. Orange lights were everywhere and nothing stood still. _Blizzard-Cry_ soon balked, overwhelmed, and spun a little out of control.

Cheyenne let out a shrill scream and found herself panicking. Her stomach twisted in fear and her gloved hands shook so much that she didn't know what to do with them. She simply kept spinning, backing further and further away from the fight. For a few precious moments she hung aimlessly in the sky making a beautiful target for the enemy.

"Shy, what the heck are you DOIN'?" Duo snapped. "Get your butt to the middle point, pronto!"

"Don't get nauseous, they're just robots. There are no human pilots inside," Quatre added quietly.

"Calm down, you can do it," Trowa assured her.

"STOP ACTING STUPID AND KILL IT, CRAZY WOMAN!" Wufei shouted.

Wufei's voice made it through. Cheyenne forced herself to calm down and when her eyes snapped open they were cold and gray. "Roger that," she whispered, then clamped her hands around the throttle and pulled back, allowing her samurai swords to unsheathe. Narrowing her eyes, she pushed downward, flying towards the enemies in the middle. When they started to attack, she crossed her swords in front of her to use as a shield against the enemy gunfire. When she was close enough she lashed out with one of the swords, slicing an enemy arm off. The robot immediately turned towards her with its remaining arm, firing again. They began to chase one another throughout space, weaving in and out of the other Gundams and their enemies in an endless waltz. **(Hee-hee.)**

Finally, Cheyenne spotted an opening and sheathed one of her giant swords. She turned her right arm into a machine gun and let out a massive volley of gunfire. The robot exploded into flame. "YEEEEEAH!" she screamed, thrilled beyond measure.

Before she had time to celebrate though, several more approached her, but by then her training took over and she performed effortlessly. There were some rough patches a couple of times but one of the guys always had her back. When the last one in her section blew up she turned and kept her gun out in case anyone needed help, but Duo had just finished off his group as had Wufei and Trowa. Quatre was nowhere to be seen.

Wufei tried his darndest to keep an arrogant smile off of his face at Cheyenne's performance. '_Perhaps she has skills after all. No doubt she got them from watching me,' _he thought as they all regrouped.

"Well? Do we follow him?" Cheyenne asked, referring to Quatre.

"That we do," Duo replied, and the four remaining pilots headed to Colony Twelve.

**(*)**

"Here's where your ride ends," Quatre told Yumi, Kaila and Heero as he opened his Gundam's hands and let the three out onto the roof of the main base. "We'll be back for you in approximately six hours. Stay calm and focused guys! Good luck!" Quatre turned to Yumi. "Come back alive, Yumi…you for me," he whispered and then flew off the roof so he could meet up with the rest of the Gundams.

Yumi blew kisses at him as he flew away, Kaila gagged, and Heero just, well, stood there. Then he scanned the rooftop with his dark eyes, trying to find a way in.

Kaila saw what he was doing and searched with him. "There," she told the pilot, pointing to a roof door. Heero nodded. "Probably laced with all kinds of security gizmos," she added.

Heero nodded again and turned to Yumi. "Yumi, do your thing."

Yumi gave him the thumbs-up sign and swiftly ran to the roof door, reaching into her boot. She pulled out an electronic device and held it u. It beeped several times telling her that the giant iron door was indeed laced with security "gizmos". She smiled and closed her eyes, tracing the entry with her fingertips. The door immediately turned a bright neon green color, suddenly darkening to deep purple and then a chime was heard. The green-haired girl turned to nod at Heero and Kaila before she opened the door and slipped inside.

"What the heck did she just do?" Kaila scratched her head. At certain times during their training, the girls had split up to receive special training in their own areas: Cheyenne in flying and strategy, Kaila in hacking and fighting and Yumi in espionage.

Heero crossed his arms, prepared to wait for Yumi's signal. "Her fingertips have anti-electrical security devices, or AESD, on them that enable her to deprogram any minor security devices," he answered in his usual monotone tone of voice.

Kaila sat cross-legged on the ground, pulling at her violet leather outfit and thigh high black leather boots. "AESD eh? Sounds like a drug…" She glanced up at the darkening sky, hoping that Duo was all right. It appeared that even though they were on a space colony, the sky was very much the same as the one on Earth, yet it still blew Kaila's mind to know that they were on a _space_ station. "I didn't know we were advanced enough to have actual functioning colonies right alongside us," she added, incredulous.

"There's plenty that you still don't know," he told her enigmatically.

Kaila raised an eyebrow at him. "Let me guess, you're not going to tell me what I don't know, right?"

"Not now."

"Figures," she muttered, crossing her arms and closing her eyes. "Humph, I'd almost forgotten."

"Forgotten what?"

"How much I don't like you."

"..."

**(*)**

Yumi quietly made her way down the roof stairs. Instead of touching the floor when she reached the bottom though, she placed black gloves over her hands, then she balled her hands into fists, allowing four claws to appear from the knuckles. Next, she reached down and pushed a button on her black thigh-high boots. Steel claws appeared from the top of the boots vertically down the shoe to the bottom. She smiled grimly and dug the claws into the wall, climbing upwards until she was hanging onto the ceiling above the floor like a spider. In this Spiderman-like fashion she made her way down the hall towards her goal, the main security room.

A guard clad all in black suddenly passed beneath her and she held her breath. Unfortunately, another guard in blue came from the other direction, stopped beside the first guard and began to talk. '_Please, please don't look up,'_ she pleaded.

"So how's the baby, Treizster?" the guard in black asked. He was holding a rifle and wearing a huge black helmet.

"Just fine, Zechs," the blue guard answered. He wore sunglasses as well as a heavy looking rocket launcher on his back. "I wish you wouldn't call her a "baby", though. She's a puppy, darn it!"

"Riiight, but since your mate calls her a baby, I thought I should, too."

"Yeah, well, my _mate_ has internal problems," the blue one named Treizster muttered as he took off his sunglasses and rubbed his nose. "Issues, man…"

"True, although I wasn't going to say anything. Why'd you marry Une anyway?"

'_UNE?' _Yumi wondered in disbelief. '_Crap! Did she betray us like Dorothy?'_

"Well, you know, she asked and all," Treizster shrugged. "Who was I to say no? You know about that "problem" she has-"

"Yeah, she's a schizo," Zechs nodded.

'_They're definitely talking about the same Une...' _Yumi groaned.

"So what about Noin?" Treizster asked.

"What about Noin?"

"Are you two, you know, together?"

"Together?"

"Yeah."

"What do you mean?"

"Like are you together?"

"Together?"

"Y-Yeah."

"What do you mean?"

Treizster shrugged wearily and changed the subject. "Anyway, I'm only here for a couple of days. I heard that the Gundam pilots are planning to take this place down before Delia takes _them_ down."

"Yes, I know. I'm only doing mercenary work and I really don't feel like being here when it all goes down," Zechs told him.

"Got your own agenda, huh? I respect that," Treizster nodded. "Yeah, after I finish up my files, I'm out of here, too. Une wanted me to get out of here today for some strange reason so I guess I'll respect her wishes."

"Hmn?" Zechs turned to him. "She said _today,_ eh? Then I think I'll leave today, too."

Treizster nodded. "Cool. Well, back to our posts."

"Yeah..." Zechs trailed off. "I'm heading back to the main security room, then I'm out of here."

'_Bingo!'_ Yumi thought from above them.

"Nice," Treizster stretched. "I think I'll go get some coffee."

"Actually, if I were you, I'd take your stuff and leave now."

"Huh?" Treizster gave him a curious look. "Why?"

"I'd just do it."

"Geez, first Une and now you? What are you guys so paranoid about?"

"I'd just do it," Zechs repeated calmly.

Treizster sighed. "Fine, I'm outta here."

"Good. Bye."

"Um...yeah, bye," Treizster waved half-heartedly and walked down the hall. Zechs turned and walked in the other direction.

Yumi bit her lip in indecision. Obviously, Une hadn't told her husband about them. She was probably living a double life and why not? She _was_ schizophrenic so it made sense, after all. Plus, that must've been how they had all the inside information on everything in Colony Twelve in the first place. '_Wicked!'_ Yumi grinned and followed Zechs to the security room.

After fifteen minutes of following behind the one called Zechs, he stopped in front of the main security room with Yumi right above him. She watched him take out a small card and slide it through the security lock. It beeped and the door swished open.

"You can come down now. I opened the door for you," Zechs said.

Yumi froze and her stomach plummeted. '_Is he talking about me?'_

He looked up and pointed his rifle at her. "I said, come down."

Yumi gulped and extracted her boots from the ceiling so that she was just hanging on by her hand claws, then she balled her hands into fists again and the claws disappeared into her gloves, causing her to drop to the ground. She grunted and straightened quickly, ready to fight for her life as she quickly brandished her silencer gun.

"I'm not going to hurt you nor am I going to stop you," Zechs said. He put his gun down and motioned towards the door. "Do whatever it is you came here to do."

Yumi looked from him to the door and back, then crossed her arms over her leather-covered chest. "Riiight." She didn't trust the guard at all.

Zechs shrugged and took off his helmet. Immediately, thick long blonde hair cascaded down his back in gorgeous shiny locks, sparkling all the while. He turned his head from side to side, allowing the locks to flick in the air as he did so, _flick, swish, sparkle. _**(Heheheh-shampoo commercial.)**

Yumi's eyes widened and a small sigh escaped her lips as she watched mesmerized. Zechs was…beautiful! It took way too much time for her to regain herself, but when she did, she narrowed her reddish-brown eyes and kept her distance.

Zechs opened his baby blues to gaze at her. "You're a new face. Are you part of the Gundam team now?"

"Maybe, Pretty Boy," she snapped.

He smiled. "Make sure you succeed. I don't want beauty such as yours going to waste, all right…Yumi?"

That comment caught her completely off guard. How in the world had he learned her name? She ran a gloved hand through her dark green hair nervously. "Um..." She didn't know what else to say so Zechs continued.

"'Yumi', that's Japanese for 'beauty', am I right?" he asked. Yumi didn't reply and Zechs smiled. "Anyway, I'm only a merc here and I've already got the information I need. What happens to Colony Twelve is no longer my concern, so do what you came here to do." With that, he turned- _twirl-_ and started to walk down the hall.

Yumi watched him go with an eyebrow raised, momentarily startled. Eventually, even the door to the security room slid shut behind her. "He's serious," she murmured.

Zechs turned around suddenly –_whoosh_- and his pale blonde locks twirled with him. _Sparkle, sparkle. _ "Oh here, you might want to use this, I no longer need it." He tossed the security card to her feet, turned, -_twirl, whoosh-_ and disappeared around the corner.

**(*)**

Yumi sat at what looked like the main computer, scratching her head. Computers were Kaila's department, not hers. She almost panicked until she remembered what Une had told her to do.

Une's smiling face appeared in her head. _"Don't let all the flashing lights and computer gadgets get to you, Yumi. Your job is to simply flip the gravitational switch. This will cause everyone to lose all force of gravity inside the base and it will also disable security if you turn the knob to the right."_

"_Hai_! The blue switch! Right!" Yumi searched the control panel for a blue switch. Finding it, she flipped it and proceeded to turn the knob. She immediately lost her footing and floated in the air. "Whoa!" she exclaimed, taking out her hand and foot claws and latching onto the ceiling. "Okay, gotta head to the meeting point now." She left the room, secretly thanking the handsome and mysterious Zechs for making her job easier. '_H__e's so cute!' _

**(Zechs = Rowr)**


	13. Chapter 13 Heero & the Hacker

**13) Heero & the Hacker**

The five Gundams stood "inconspicuously" in a large clearing waiting for Phase Three to end so they could go pick Kaila, Yumi and Heero back up. Cheyenne wearily climbed out of _Blizzard-Cry_ and sat on its foot. After a minute the rest of the pilots followed suit, each sitting at the foot of their respective Gundams.

"We're relatively safe for now," Quatre said for no reason. His mind was really on Yumi, wondering if she was okay and hoping that she hadn't met with any opposition.

Cheyenne glared at him and waved her hand around the clearing. "Are you kidding me? Are you trying to say that no-one is able to see our Gundams from air, ground or sea! Look at these things! They're like eight billion feet tall! Even a blind man would know we were here! Ya can't hide these things! Not even with your special leaf thing you did, Trowa! I don't care, but you can't make a Gundam invisible by piling leaves over it-"

"What's with you?" Wufei snapped. He glanced around the clearing and rested a hand on his sword. "Are you scared or something, Woman?"

"No! Just cautious is all."

"But _Blizzard-Cry_ can cloak us all…did you forget?" Duo asked his cousin.

"Umm, oh yeah. Page 33," she began to recite it. "'_One exciting feature of your new Gundam, Prototype B-23-C128-7 is the special cloaking device that can cloak either it or any friendly Gundam in the area_'." She shrugged. "So?"

Wufei groaned. "Don't tell me you didn't turn the cloaking device _on_?"

Cheyenne only shrugged helplessly. All four guys clapped their hands to their foreheads as she quickly leapt up _Blizzard-Cry_ to activate the cloaking device.

**(*)**

Kaila and Heero floated above the building after Yumi hit the gravitational switch.

Heero nodded to Kaila and began to swim as if he was in water. "Phase One and Two are complete. Phase Three is now beginning. Let's go. I'll cover you." He took his gun out and motioned for Kaila to proceed ahead of him.

Kaila nodded and side stroked in front of him, then down the stairway and towards the computer control room. She clearly remembered the way to go since Quatre had drilled her on maps of the place over and over again until she knew it like she knew her own bedroom. As she swam through the hallways, she was glad for his drilling though: now she didn't have to waste her time trying to figure out where to go.

Heero was right behind her, his eyes scanning the hallway left and right, watching Kaila's back as he did so. Just then, a young man passed underneath them and screamed.

"WHAAAT? It's the Gundam pilots! Everybody run for your-" He immediately stopped raving when Heero pointed his gun at him.

"Shut up. You never saw us. We were never here."

"R-r-r-r-right," the young man nodded. (Yumi would have recognized him as Treizster.)

Kaila ignored the two's conversation, concentrating instead on her goal. The next part of the mission was solely dependant on her.

**(*)**

"So now whatta we do?" Cheyenne asked. She was still sitting on _Blizzard-Cry_'s foot with her hands on her cheeks, bored to tears.

"We sit and wait 'til it's time to pick everyone up," Duo explained.

"Are you kidding me? We just sit here and look at each other?"

The boys sat, looked at each other and shrugged. Cheyenne huffed and dragged her knees to her chest, shaking her head in incredulity. After several minutes of silence that was only broken by the occasional cough and/or sneeze, Duo suddenly piped up.

"All right! Fine!" He leapt up and began to dance around. "Duo Duo Bo Boo-oh, Banana Fanna Fo Foo-oh, Me My Mo Moo-oh, Duo!"

Quatre grinned and caught on to the Name Game song. "Quatre Quatre Bo Battra, Banana Fanna Fo Fattra, Me My Mo Mattra, Quatre!"

"Cheyenne, Cheyenne Bo Bye-Anne, Banana Fanna Fo Fy-Anne, Me My Mo My-Anne, Cheyenne!" Cheyenne grinned and added her name to the list.

Trowa shrugged and sang his name as well, in monotone of course. "Trowa Trowa Bo Boa, Banana Fanna Fo Foa, Me My Mo Moa, Trowa." When he was done, everyone turned expectantly to Wufei who glared at them with his arms crossed.

"Yeah, right," Wufei rolled his black eyes. "There's no justice in singing that ridiculous song."

"Sure there is!" Duo grinned. "Wufei Wufei Bo Boofay, Banana Fanna Fo Foo-fay, Me My Mo Moo-fay, Wufei!" Then he fell onto his back in laughter. The rest of the group laughed too…except for Wufei who didn't find his name slandered funny at all.

"Oh, lighten up, Wufei!" Cheyenne said.

Wufei shook his head but moved to sit next to her. "At least sing a song with a little more respect!" he snapped.

"Like what? The Macarena?" Duo asked.

Wufei snorted. "No…like…like, "This is the song that never ends, it just goes on and on, my friend-"

Duo laughed and joined him. "Some people started singing it not knowing what it was-"

"And they'll just keep on singing it forever just because this is the song that never ends-" Trowa added.

"It just goes on and on, my friend!" Quatre began to harmonize. "Some people started singing it not knowing what it was-"

"And they'll just keep on singing it forever just because this is the song that never ends-" Wufei picked it back up.

"Stop it, stop it, stop it!" Cheyenne yelled, covering her ears. "I absolutely _hate_ that song! It has got to be the most pointless song in the world!"

"Awww," Duo pouted.

"We are some bored souls," Trowa shook his head. Quatre smiled and began to sing in words that were foreign to Cheyenne's ears. She looked at him curiously.

"What's that?" she asked.

"An Arabic folk song," Quatre answered, still smiling.

Cheyenne blinked. "You're Arab?"

"He's an Arabian prince," Duo corrected her.

Cheyenne's eyes widened. "Really? That's SO unexpected! And cool!"

"It's not really that big a deal," Quatre shrugged.

"No, it really isn't," Wufei added.

Cheyenne frowned. "Oh…okay, then."

Silence.

_Cricket, cricket._

"So…" Duo began.

_Cricket, cricket. _

Cheyenne sighed and lay on her back, looking up at the sky. "Let's just sit here and enjoy nature."

The boys appeared to heed her suggested and were quiet for a few minutes…at least until Wufei grinned evilly at her.

"This is the song that never ends…"

**(*)**

Kaila sat at a computer terminal typing furiously into it. Heero had managed to somehow keep the gravity level down in their room, allowing them to walk _on_ the floor instead of float above it. He was standing by the door, monitoring the hallway outside for any intruders as she worked. The room was dark and the computer and chair were the only objects inside it with the gleam from the computer screen being her only light.

She continued to type until the computer beeped. Immediately a screen came up asking for a password and she sighed heavily. "Okay, here goes everything. Heero, quick, give me five one-digit numbers."

"One, two, three, four and five," Heero answered without turning from the door.

"You are _so_ creative." She punched the numbers in. "Now, give me a letter. Actually, give me two."

"G and W."

She shook her head and typed the letters in. When the computer started to process the password she immediately knocked on the screen three times and then typed her name in on the keyboard. The screen turned neon green. "Huh?"

Heero finally turned to her. "It's not working?"

Kaila shook her head, baffled. "I…I don't get it. It's…"

He came to her side and leant against the desk, facing her with his arms crossed. "What's the problem?"

"The screen," she gestured to it. "It's not supposed to turn neon green! It's supposed to turn black!"

"So this is bad."

"Yeah, I-" She cut herself off when she heard several voices shouting down the hall. "Crap! They know we're here!"

"They've known we were here for a quite a while, they just didn't know _where_," he replied calmly. He turned the safety off his gun and walked back to the door.

Kaila allowed her rarely seen vulnerable side to surface as she looked at his back. "Heero, what am I supposed to do?"

"You're the hacker in this mission, not me." He crouched down and aimed his gun down the hall. "Figure it out."

Kaila bit her lip and continued to stare at the screen. Then in frustration, she balled her hand into a fist and rapped the top of the computer three times. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGH!" she screamed. Immediately, the computer lit back up and she was ready to roll. "Hah, just like my old TV at school…"

"Good job, unfortunately, we're short for time," Heero remarked from his corner as the voices got closer. "Do your worst, and hurry."

She nodded and rapidly typed into the colony's computer. As she typed, her light brown eyes scanned over the folders, trying to find the right one. Finally she just used her mouse to hit the "_Explore files_" button. Immediately a box appeared saying "_Password needed_" and since she didn't have a password for this part of the job, the box quickly switched to say "_Logging off_."

She hastily reached into her leather pocket and pulled out the only gadget she had: her _Hacker's Aid5009_. She grimaced and reached behind the CPU, placing the _Hacker's Aid5009_ into a plug there. Immediately several beeps sounded and the object countered the log-off function.

Heero tensed as the voices became ever louder and turned his head to monitor Kaila's work. With a frown, he shook his head. "What are you doing? Releasing the virus from there would take too long. Go to the server," he ordered.

Kaila narrowed her eyes. "All right, all right. I was just doing a little back-up."

"No time for that."

"Hey, _I'm_ the hacker here, remember?" she retorted. Still, she clicked on the "_Find_" button, typed in "_Server_" and was immediately led to the mainframe. She grunted as the hard part began. Everything she typed into the server came up as "_Command not found._" Beads of sweat began to form on her forehead as she outsmarted the computer's locking codes left and right. It was almost a battle of wills until finally...

"Bingo. Access Granted. I'm in the Mobile Suit Starter Files..." Kaila smiled grimly. "Say bye-bye." She typed in the numbers five, zero, zero and nine which activated the _Hacker's Aid5009_. "Virus initiated. It'll crash in two minutes," she murmured as the screen started to blink and a dancing fish with a hammer ran back and forth in the background. "Now that's creative." Her part of the mission was almost done.

"Done?" Heero grunted from the door.

She was about to respond when she remembered the "_Explore files_" window she'd seen before. With a satisfied grin, she brought it up and scanned the folders. She saw one called "_Gundam_" and nodded, pleased with herself. "I knew this would come in handy," she murmured. "Don't want them having any more info on us then they need." She erased file after file of documents as well as profiles, pictures and any other information Colony Twelve had on the Gundams, Medora University and their organization. By the time that was done, Heero was shooting at people from the door.

"Let's go, Kaila," he grunted as bullets whizzed past his head.

"Just let me…" Kaila quickly tried to find anything else that had to do with their school. She noticed a file entitled "_Spies_" and clicked on it. Immediately Dorothy's information came up. "Dorothy was that Shadow Walker spy, right. But this file says there are _two_ spies in Medora University? Who's-"

Before she could read anything about the second spy, the dancing fish on the screen began to laugh and swing its hammer. The computer shut down, "_VIRUS COMPLETE_" came up and Heero ran into the room, slamming the door behind him.

"Done?" he asked again, looking around the room quickly.

"Um...yes, done," Kaila answered, storing the spy info in her mind for later contemplation. She retrieved her _Hacker's Aid5009_, stuffed it in her pocket and took her machine gun rifle off her back. "Are we going to retaliate?"

"No time for that. We've got to get out of here."

"Um…but the path we were supposed to leave by-"

"-Is no good." He shook his head.

"How about the air vent?"

"Don't be an idiot." He went over to the one window in the room. "This will have to do."

She trailed him to the window, looked down, gulped and pulled back. "Now _you're_ kidding! We're like ten stories up!" Heero only shrugged, put his gun back into its holster and stepped onto the windowsill as he opened the window itself. "Heero, I am _so_ not following you," Kaila huffed.

"You got a better idea?"

"Give me a few minutes. I'm bound to come up with something."

"We don't have a few minutes."

As if to prove his point, three bullets suddenly flew through the door. Kaila shrieked and ducked.

Heero nodded. "Now, do you trust me?"

"What?"

"Do you trust me?" He held out a hand to her.

She looked at it curiously but finally put a hand on her hips. "Trust you with my precious life and a ten story drop? Heck no!"

"So much for the _Aladdin_ approach," he shrugged and grabbed her arm. "We're jumping."

**(*)**

Cheyenne looked up from her poker game with Duo and then at her watch. "Um, isn't it about that time to pick 'em up?" she asked hesitantly. All four guys looked at her with terrified looks on their faces.

"Oh CRAAAP!" Duo jumped up, making his poker cards fly everywhere in the process.

"I think that means you win," Trowa uttered from his place next to Cheyenne as he helped her up.

"Shy, why didn't you say something before?" Quatre complained, fretting about his teammates already.

Cheyenne motioned angrily. "I thought you all knew something I didn't. I mean, dang, is the newbie supposed to know EVERYTHING?"

"Of course not. They're slacking, that's all," Wufei replied from behind her.

She turned to him in surprise. It took a moment for her to register that he was actually _agreeing_ with her for once. "Um…right…they're…they're slacking…"

Wufei tapped his watch. "C'mon woman, don't follow their example."

Cheyenne watched him run over to his Gundam in surprise. '_Now that was different,'_ she mused.

**(*)**

"LET ME GO!" Kaila struggled with Heero but he had her upper arm in a death grasp and once he stepped off the ledge, she did too.

"You are craaaaaaaaaaaaazyyyyyyyyyyyyy!" Kaila yelled. She began to pray fervently as she saw her life pass before her eyes. "Oh Lord, if you let me live through this, I promise to do all my homework and never look off of Naomi's notes ever again-"

"Roll!" Heero yelled.

"What?" She could barely hear him with all the wind rushing in her ears.

"Roll!" he repeated, letting go of her arm and tucking his knees to his chest.

Kaila whimpered and did the same as the world became a blur in her eyesight.

Immediately, Heero came out of his roll and took something from his pocket, pushing a button. A wire shot from the object, connecting to a building across for them. "Hand!" he ordered. Kaila barely had time to react and she flung a hand towards him. He grabbed it as they swung at an alarming rate towards a brick wall.

The impact hurt...a lot; but at least they weren't falling anymore. Kaila continued breathing heavily while looking up at Heero and then down to the ground. They were still too high to jump without breaking anything.

"Where the heck did you get that Batman thingie?" she asked. "And how come you and Yumi get all the cool gadgets and all I get is the _Hacker's Aid5009_?"

"This isn't quite the time or place to wonder this..." Heero replied.

Kaila looked down, clung closer to him, bit her lip and nodded. "Right." Her eyes widened when a soldier appeared at a window across from them with a gun. "He's gonna shoot!" she screamed. And shoot he did.

The first couple of shots were embarrassingly bad. One was so far off that Kaila had to laugh.

"Geez, where'd YOU learn how to shoot? The Guns for Goofs school?" she scoffed. "Hi, my name is DORKWAD, and I'm a stupid solider who can't shoot a gun! Oh look at me, I don't know what a bullet is! I have no AIM!"

The soldier glared at her and disappeared from view.

"You really shouldn't have done that," Heero murmured.

"And why not?" Kaila snapped. "Could things really get any worse?"

As if in answer, the soldier reappeared with a rocket launcher on his shoulder.

"HOLY CRAP!"

But the soldier got shot out of his perch and fell towards the ground himself. Kaila peered up as a large shadow covered both her and Heero. Duo's black Gundam _Death-Scythe_ appeared between their two buildings.

"Miss me?" Duo's cheerful voice asked from _Death-Scythe_. He stretched the giant mobile suit's hand towards them so they could drop easily into it. When Kaila could stand on something solid again, she did something she'd never thought she would do: blow a kiss to Duo as Yumi had done to Quatre.

Duo laughed. "I'll take that as a yes, ya missed me. You guys okay?"

"Phases One through Three are completed. Yumi's working on Phase Four," Heero replied.

"Cool. Sit down guys; I'm talking y'all to safety. Good job!" _Death-Scythe's_ hand closed over the two as the giant black Gundam flew back towards their makeshift camp.


	14. Chapter 14 Espionage & Other Things

**14) Espionage & Other Things**

"What the heck are you doing?" Cheyenne yelled at Wufei who leapt out of _Shen-Long_ and headed towards the building that Kaila and Heero had previously been in.

"There's no way Kaila could've gotten everything! I'm going to go do some backup stuff. Don't worry about it, Woman, just stick to your mission!" Wufei snapped.

Cheyenne glared at him. "How can I sit here and worry about my mission if _you're_ not even _following_ the mission, _baka_!"

Wufei hesitated for just a moment and then continued on his way.

"Did you just call him stupid?" Trowa asked from beside her in _Heavy-Arms_.

"Basically. I'm following him, Trowa!" She opened _Blizzard-Cry_'s cockpit and leapt down towards the ground.

"Why?"

"I can't let him go in there alone!"

"Why not?" Trowa asked, not comprehending.

"He needs someone to watch his back!"

"He'll be all right, Cheyenne. He's a Gundam pilot."

"I'm going Trowa."

"Cheyenne, you can't. This is incredibly-"

"I'm goooooooooooooiiiiiiiiing!" She placed a pack over her shoulder and ran into the building.

Trowa sighed heavily and stayed behind to guard the two pilot-less Gundams of theirs. "Why me…?"

**(*)**

Yumi sat patiently in the meeting place, shaking her head as she glanced at her watch. Nearly seven hours had passed since their initial drop-off and she'd waited at least thirty minutes for both Heero and Kaila to appear. Yumi had gone back and done as much damage as she possibly could and now several parts of the main base in Colony Twelve were on fire, thanks to her. The base was actually getting to the point where it was no longer safe to stay inside.

Yumi shook her head again and began to make her way back to where the three had first come in. On her way out, she noticed green fumes filling the air. "Gas!" She quickly ran towards the exit above her. The gravity had long since malfunctioned since she'd practically destroyed anything that looked like a machine. The lights were out, sirens were going and now smoke was filling the air.

'_Forget this, Heero and Kaila must have already made it out,'_ Yumi reasoned, tired of being alone. She climbed the steps two at a time and broke out into the cool night air, breathing it in heavily. She dropped to her knees and put a hand to her chest and right away noticed the feet of a Gundam beside her.

"Where've you been?" came Quatre's voice.

"Waiting for Heero and Kaila!" Yumi coughed, climbing into the hand he held out to her.

"Oh, um, yeah, about that. We had a slight change of plans."

"Mif%#%*&!" Yumi answered, making Quatre blush as he flew her off towards safety.

**(*)**

Cheyenne charged in after Wufei but somehow lost him quickly. Perhaps it was the fact that the place was pitch black except for the occasional red flashing light or maybe it was the orange smoke; either way he was gone. The young pilot frowned, checking to her left and then her right, trying to find any trace of him.

"Wufei? Wuuuufeiiii?" she called out into the darkness to no avail. Suddenly a figure appeared from the shadows with a rifle trained on her. Cheyenne squeaked and back-flipped for more space. When she landed, her own .35 caliber gun was out and pointing at the figure. "Who are you?" she asked tensely. The figure said nothing, only coming closer and closer. When it was right upon her, it leant over. She blinked as long flowing blonde hair came into view. _Sparkle, sparkle._

"A woman?" she asked.

"No, Fiery One, I'm quite masculine," a man rumbled deep in his throat, flicking his hair over his shoulder so she could see his face. _Flick, swish, sparkle._

Cheyenne's eyes widened at the deep-voiced man. "Who...who are you?"

"I am called many things. Zechs, Wind, Milliardo, the Lightning Count-"

"Dude, pick a name," Cheyenne snorted.

He shrugged and stood straight, helping her up as he did so. "It's good to have many aliases. It makes you harder to find." She caught a flash of cunning in his blue eyes and immediately knew that this guy was no amateur. "Anyway, all you need to know is that I'm a mercenary," he continued. "And as you should know, I will not get in your way."

"Okay...well...get outta my way, then," she muttered, preparing to push past him.

"Of course," Zechs moved aside. "Oh, and if you're looking for a certain black-haired young man, he disappeared that way." He pointed to his right.

Cheyenne stared. "What?"

"Believe me if you wish," the blonde man shrugged again. _Twirl, sparkle, sparkle._ "By the way, gas is starting to invade this building. I'd advise you to put your helmet on, Fiery One," he added as he left in a sea of blonde hair. _Twinkle, twinkle._

Cheyenne stared after him, placing the helmet on her head and turning the air neutralizer on. "I've gotta get the name of the shampoo he uses."

**(*)**

Wufei took a cautious step back, seeing that six colony guards surrounded him. "I don't think you want to fight me," he said with narrowed eyes.

"Sure we do!" a guard sneered and proceeded to rush the young Chinese man. The guard was immediately flipped onto his back and knocked out cold.

"No, actually, you don't," Wufei wiped his hands. The other five guards growled and advanced upon him at once. Wufei kicked the first guard in the head and then put the second one in a headlock. Ducking the third guard's lunge, he kicked the fourth one in the stomach. However, he lost track of the other two and soon the continuous attacks and poisonous gas got to him. His eyesight started to waver and he fell to one knee. The guard he held managed to free himself and ran over to the other two conscious ones.

"This is where your fun ends!" One of the guards pointed his gun at him.

Wufei narrowed his eyes and tried to run forward, but instead fell to the other knee. "Darn it!" he growled.

"This is too easy!" another guard laughed.

"Stop right there!"

All three guards looked up as a new Gundam pilot leapt into the air, did three twists, rebounded off a wall, pulled a back-flip and then landed in their midst, punching one guard in the stomach and disarming the other one with a kick.

"Oh crap! Another one!" the last guard standing cried.

"T-Trowa?" Wufei murmured, seeing the impressive flips. He watched as the third and last guard put up a bit of a fight until the pilot flipped over the guard's shoulder...only to land rather awkwardly that time.

"OW!" the pilot yelled, falling onto her rear but still managing to kick the guard's feet out from under him. She then elbowed the guard in the gut, knocking him out cold.

Wufei shook his head. Never in however long that he'd known Trowa had he ever seen the guy trip. It had to be Cheyenne...

The pilot whimpered as she limped over to Wufei. "Geez, I think I broke something on that last flip. There's a price for having cool entrances. How does Trowa do it?" She stopped in front of Wufei and took off her helmet, causing her sunset-colored hair to fall around her face like a waterfall.

Wufei's eyes widened for, in his dream-like state, she looked beautiful. "Cheyenne..." he whispered.

Cheyenne narrowed her eyes at him. "Look at you, you look terrible," she chided. "If you'd just remembered to bring your backpack and weapon like a good little Gundam pilot then you wouldn't be in this predicament right now." She rolled her eyes and reached into her pack, placing a gas mask over his mouth and nose. "There, breathe," she ordered. She began to place her helmet back over her head when she realized something. "Wait, did...did you just call me...Cheyenne...?"

There was only silence as Wufei breathed in the fresh air; then he sat up and narrowed his eyes. "That's your name, isn't it?" he snapped, regaining his senses. He looked over her shoulder then and his black eyes widened. "WATCH OUT!" He grabbed her and rolled as a guard who had managed to grab his gun, pointed and fired at the two. They rolled and rolled, dodging the bullets, until the man grunted in surprise. When they looked up, they were startled to see yet another Gundam pilot standing in front of them with a smoking gun.

"Good thing I came to watch your backs," Trowa told them, coming forward to help. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Cheyenne nodded and motioned for Wufei to get off of her. When he did (rather reluctantly one might add) she noticed that his arm had been grazed by a bullet and he was bleeding. "Oh no, you're hurt!"

"So are you." He helped her up. "She's hurt, Trowa."

Trowa nodded and casually slipped an arm around Cheyenne's waist while she looked at Wufei in concern.

"But...you-"

"I'll live," Wufei replied.

"Come, I'll help you out. Put your helmet back on," Trowa said and turned to Wufei. "We've got to hurry. This place will blow any second."

Wufei nodded and tried not to watch Cheyenne put her helmet on as she held lightly onto Trowa. He felt something stir in his throat (it was probably bile) but for once he wasn't afraid to admit the reason underneath it. He was jealous...or at the very least possessive. If he couldn't have her, then no one could. If he wasn't allowed to be happy and be with her, then why should anyone? But he couldn't just _tell _her that, not after the way he'd treated her and he also knew that now wasn't the best time to tell them either. Still, once he admitted it to himself, he felt a load lift from his shoulders...

"Sorry, dead end!"

Trowa, Cheyenne and Wufei looked up in surprise to see a female with a gas mask pointing a small gun at them. Her dark brown hair flowed over her shoulders and her bright green eyes glinted in the darkness.

"Who're you?" Cheyenne asked.

The woman flicked her hair over her shoulder. "I'm Delia. Delia Stead. Perhaps you've heard of me?" she smirked. "You three Gundam geeks aren't going anywhere. I won't have you messing up my plan of world domination." Her fingers tightened on the gun. "It's true, if you want something done right, you have to do it your-"

"VILLAINS AND WOMEN TALK TOO MUCH!" Wufei screamed unexpectedly. He pulled a rocket launcher from seemingly out of nowhere and pointed it at Delia. "We're leaving this dump whether you like it or not, WOMAN!"

Delia's eyes widened and she jumped out of the way when Wufei fired missile after missile into the wall behind her.

"Get down!" Trowa told Cheyenne and they both hit the floor as missiles went over their heads. When the smoke cleared somewhat, Delia and the rocket launcher were mysteriously gone and Wufei was clutching his hurt arm to his side.

"Blast it! That hurt," he muttered.

"Wow…" Cheyenne replied.

Trowa only shook his head. "Let's go."

**(*)**

The Gundam group reunited to sit around a blazing campfire. Duo, Kaila, and Heero sat off to one side, conversing. Yumi sat staring into the fire with her knees drawn up to her chest while Quatre ran around making sure everyone was comfortable for the night. Trowa sat a little off to himself, watching Cheyenne bandage Wufei's arm.

Wufei stared at his arm sullenly as she worked. "I can do this myself. You don't have to pamper me," he mumbled.

She only smiled. "It's good to have someone pamper you every once in a while. It gives your tired body a break." She stretched her sprained ankle a bit; the one that Trowa had wrapped for her. "It's good to…have someone who cares care for you."

He looked at her, confused. "What are you talking about, woman?"

"Wufei..." She swallowed and then somehow found the courage to reach out and touch his cheek. "You've lived a hard life, I know. And you've made it harder on yourself than need be at times." She removed her hand and took his hand in hers. A slow song** (probably Heero's song_, Flying Away_)** began to drift in the background.

"I...I can...I mean, I..." She sighed and looked down, placing his hand in her lap. It was no use. It was perfect moment and yet she still couldn't get the words out. And how could she? Inside, she was still scared that her feelings wouldn't be returned.

Wufei's eyes softened **(!)** and he squeezed her hand with his own. "I know," he murmured.

Cheyenne's eyes widened. Her heart began to beat rapidly at the thought of him having the same feelings for her after all. "How could you possibly know? I mean...I never told you how much I-"

"Shhh, I just know...Cheyenne," he repeated. He couldn't believe it; she felt the same as he did! Meiran's words reached him again. '_She is good for you...' _So Meiran was right about...well...everything. "I feel the same way."

Cheyenne shook her head, feeling her cheeks getting hot. So that was it. They had confessed their feelings for each other...and he had finally called her by her name twice, instead of the usual "woman". She wasn't able to suppress a happy grin and so she cheered, breaking the incredibly serious moment. "WU-WUUUU!" She flung herself onto him in a happy bear hug.

Wufei rolled his eyes but didn't complain for once, instead he chuckled, feeling more loads disappear from his shoulders as he fell onto his back. The two began to laugh uncontrollably as they enjoyed each other's closeness

"Now that's…just weird," Duo watched the two rolling around in the grass.

"Kinky," Heero said.

Kaila smiled and laid a hand on Duo's shoulder. "Aw, give the two a break. They must have gone through something life-changing in that building."

"No kiddin'!" Duo shook his head in disbelief.

Trowa watched the two with a feeling of dread welling up in him. So that was it. It was over. She'd chosen and Wufei had won.

He closed his eyes, not wanting anything unusual to fall from them such as a tear or something strange like that, and drew inward. He'd really known who she was going to choose all along. It was his own fault for falling for someone who so clearly placed her interest in another. Why had he done that? Why had he tried to fight a losing battle? Why had he tried to climb up a slippery hill? Why had he tried to break through a brick wall? **(Deep huh?)**

Eventually, tired of hearing their laughter in the back of his mind, Trowa stood and made his way over to Yumi who was still uncharacteristically staring into the flames. "What's up?" he asked, clearing his throat.

Yumi shook her head, hooding her reddish-brown eyes. "It's...it's nothing."

"Is this about Quatre?" he asked, glad to know he wasn't the only one having love problems.

Yumi sighed and placed a hand on her cheek. "Something like that. See...I met this guy...and I can't stop thinking about him. He's the direct opposite of Quatre. He's charming, beautiful, charismatic, enchanting-"

"And Quatre?"

"Quatre?" Yumi switched her gaze to the happy blonde boy. "Well, he's sweet, polite…uh…you know, he's Quatre," she shrugged.

"No, he's more than that," he told her. "He's intelligent with leadership qualities. He's totally at peace with himself, cares for you whole-heartedly and needs someone like you to care for him." Trowa inwardly wondered why he was telling her all that when he just wanted to curl up in a corner and think...although it'd be hard to find a corner in the middle of a forest. He watched the different emotions cross Yumi's face.

"If you're right...well...he doesn't show it-"

"Forgive him. He's not sure how to express his feelings all that well, at least not to a girl. He's been pampered since birth because of the whole prince-thing and surrounded by men until his sisters took over. He's extremely sensitive so be careful, okay?"

"What prince-thing?" Yumi asked, confused. She turned to look at Quatre who was placing more wood in the fire and humming to himself. "He's a prince?"

"Yeah. That doesn't change anything, does it?"

Yumi frowned, now unsure how to act around him. "I...I need to think. Thanks, Trowa, but I need to be alone."

Trowa nodded and got up. This time he headed towards Duo, Heero and Kaila who were deeply engrossed in a conversation. With Duo in it, Trowa half-expected them to be talking about turnips or something strange like that so he was a bit surprised to find them discussing something serious.

"Another spy?" Duo asked. "Like Dorothy?"

"Yes, and he or she is in our school," Kaila nodded. "At least that's what the file said, anyway."

"Wow-"

"It's probable that there are several spies in our university," Heero shrugged. "It's no big deal."

"It's not?" Kaila asked.

Heero shook his head. "No."

Kaila huffed and stood up, dragging Duo away with her. "That's the last time I volunteer any helpful information to YOU, do you hear me?" she snapped and trounced off with Duo in tow.

Heero allowed a small amused smile to cross his face that disappeared once he saw Trowa. "What's with you?" he asked the green-eyed guy.

Trowa shrugged and sat down, eyeing Cheyenne, Kaila and Yumi. "Bad luck. That's all those three bring with them. Bad luck and heartbreak."

"It's not like you to be pessimistic about women, Trowa." Heero suddenly sighed for no particular reason. "Relena…"

"You really need to stop that," Trowa said, referring to Heero's constant, strange mentioning of the girl.

"Stop what?"

"Never-mind."

"Blankets for everyone!" Quatre shouted suddenly, grinning from ear to ear and looking very boyish. "And look! One in everyone's color!" He handed Heero a green one, Trowa a red one, Duo a black one, Cheyenne a gray one, Wufei a blue one, Yumi a pink one, and Kaila a violet one. He kept the tan-colored blanket for himself.

"Color-coding, what fun," Kaila snorted, stretching out and preparing to sleep.

"Ick. We gotta sleep in our clothes?" Cheyenne complained.

Yumi shook her head and didn't even have a comment to add as she pulled her pink blanket over her head. Everyone else took Yumi's example and ignored Cheyenne as they settled down for the night. Cheyenne sweat-dropped at their blatant disregard of her comment and pouted as she set her blanket down as well.

Heero settled on the outskirts of the camp while Duo cuddled with Kaila, combining their blankets. Quatre blinked curiously at Yumi's still form and then cautiously lay near her. He stared at her to see if she'd welcome him into her embrace, but when she didn't, he sighed and nestled into his own blanket. Trowa lay on the opposite side of camp with his hands behind his head, apparently deep in thought.

Cheyenne was just getting ready to sleep when Wufei tapped her shoulder.

"C'mon," he whispered. He looked to make sure no one was watching and then grabbed her hand.

Cheyenne frowned, but followed after him. "Where're we headed?"

"You'll see," he smirked.

After a few minutes, they reached a dark clearing with flowers set all around. It was softly lit by small fireflies and strange green plants that gave off an ethereal glow. The trees even gave way for the stars overhead.

"I've been here before, to Colony Twelve," Wufei explained, setting his blanket down and motioning for her to join him. "This is the best place to sleep; the crickets will lull you right to slumber."

"Wow..." She shook her head in wonder and lay down next to Wufei. He began to edge closer as she placed her hands behind her head. "Who would have thought that someone like _you_ would have such an appreciation for beauty?"

Wufei stopped his approach and glared at her. "Must you always say things that mess up a moment, huh?" he snapped.

"Why are you always snapping at me!" she retorted.

He growled and turned on his side away from her. "Maybe this was a bad idea."

"Oh please, you didn't _have_ to lead me here." She lay on her side, facing away from him as well. "So stuff it!"

Wufei shook his head. "Whatever. Night, _Woman_."

"Night, _Wu-Wu_."

"Can't you say my name right?" Both said it at the same time. They glared at one another for a full minute before turning away so that they weren't facing each other.

Interesting enough though, they both fell asleep with smiles on their faces.


	15. Chapter 15 Good Morning

**15) Good Morning**

Wufei woke to a hand shaking his shoulder and when he opened his eyes Trowa came into view. A very frightening-can-see-the-hairs-on-his-face-close-up view of Trowa. Wufei almost jumped out of his blanket, thinking that he'd somehow ended up sharing a blanket with the guy, but Trowa, sensing his thoughts, only pointed beside him.

Wufei looked down and noticed Cheyenne curled up on his chest, drooling away. "Bleah," he muttered, but he was actually quite comfortable and had no desire to move. He glanced up at Trowa irritably. "What is it? Is it time to go?"

"No. I've just got...we gotta talk, man."

"About?" Wufei asked. When Trowa didn't answer, Wufei sighed and nodded. "Fine." He carefully slid out of the blue and gray blankets and then, as an afterthought, turned and covered Cheyenne back up. He looked down at her for a minute, still surprised at the intense change she had caused in him, then he turned to the waiting Trowa and nodded. "Talk away," he told him.

Trowa silently led him out of the clearing and then away from the main camp into a deeper part of the forest.

Wufei frowned as they walked; thinking it ridiculous if the talk was about whom he thought it was about. "Is this about Cheyenne?" he asked.

Trowa looked at him, startled, and shook his head. "No, what would make you think that?" He motioned for Wufei to look ahead of them. When he did, he saw Heero, Quatre and Duo sitting in a semi-circle waiting for the two.

"Ah," Wufei nodded grimly as they joined them.

"Were you cozy?" Duo grinned and nudged Wufei in the ribs. "Did you get the goods?"

Wufei glared at him. "I'll pretend I didn't hear that."

"C'mon, inquiring minds want to know," Duo whined.

"Do you want your hair to stay the length it is?" Wufei snapped. Duo quieted down immediately and Wufei turned to Heero. "What's this about, Heero? I assume you called this little impromptu meeting?"

"Actually _I_ did," Quatre scratched his knee and yawned. "Tea?" he offered. Wufei waved his hand in dismissal and Duo nodded for Quatre to get on with it.

"So what's this all about, huh?" the braided boy wanted to know.

Quatre nodded and drank some tea himself. "According to Trowa, he and Wufei encountered Delia Stead yesterday, am I right?"

Wufei almost slapped himself. '_Of course, how could I have forgotten?'_

Duo raised his eyebrows and even Heero raised one.

"Notice anything?" Heero asked.

Trowa frowned in thought. "Anything" for Heero was just that: Anything. "She has brown hair, long, and green eyes. Olive complexion."

"She's right-handed and prefers small arms to larger ones," Wufei added.

"Quite agile but maybe a little too cocky for her own taste," Trowa said.

"So it's pretty possible that she's the one who pilots this new _Desert-Howl_ Gundam, then?" Duo asked.

"I wouldn't doubt it," Trowa added.

"But she can't have had the prototype for long," Wufei surmised. "Before the Shadow Walkers stole it, it'd only been released in private for about the same time as _Blizzard-Cry_."

"That means that Delia's had about the same amount of time to fly the thing as Cheyenne has," Duo commented. Heero steepled his fingers and looked at the ground in thought. The rest of the guys followed suit, looking at the ground and going over the information in their minds.

"I totally disagree with this whole little meeting!"

The boys turned to see Yumi and Kaila behind them. Yumi was leaning against a tree with her head down while Kaila stood with both hands on her hips, glaring.

"Why didn't you call us?" she demanded.

The boys glanced back and forth between each other.

Quatre blushed red in the face. "Uh...we thought you'd be enjoying your sleep."

"Shut it, Quatre Raberba Winner," Kaila snapped. "Whether you guys admit it or not, we're a part of your little group now, so don't shut us out of stuff anymore!" With that, she stomped over and dropped down in the midst of them.

Yumi followed after a little slower and sat down as well, waving a hand at them. "Continue," she said calmly. The boys stared at them for a minute and then shrugged.

"We were discussing Delia Stead," Heero explained. "Wufei, Trowa and Cheyenne encountered her yesterday."

Kaila and Yumi nodded.

"I'm sure she'll attack with her fighter plane elite today," Kaila commented off-hand. The boys stared, causing her to roll her eyes. "In the files, I noticed that I only shut down the regular Class A and B mobile suits that the...well...run-of-the-mill soldiers pilot. Meanwhile, the Class C mobile suits composed of Delia's Shadow Walkers, also called her "Elite", and the _Desert-Howl_ Gundam itself will still be completely functional and able to be piloted."

"And how many is that? In the Elite?" Trowa asked.

"About sixty, not including _Desert-Howl_," Yumi told them. It was the boys turn to look at her in surprise and she shrugged. "When I was going around blowin' stuff up, I saw them, the Class C mobile suits. They were behind this door but it was impossible to get to them since the door was made of something totally indestructible. I still managed to count them all, figuring they were something special and they fit the description of Kaila's Elite. There were sixty," she repeated.

The boys looked at each other once Yumi was done. The looks on their faces were quite clear: '_We trained them well...better than we thought.'_

Quatre smiled and was about to say something more when the little clearing they were in immediately erupted into flames. The group of seven leapt up and ducked the fiery falling trees.

"Back to the campsite," Heero ordered and they ran back towards their Gundams.

Wufei grabbed Kaila as she ran past. "Where's Cheyenne?"

"You tell me!" Kaila glanced about for her best friend. "Where'd you leave her? We couldn't find her!"

"Oh...stay here! I'll get her!" Wufei ran towards the clearing but stopped when he saw Cheyenne already at the campsite, waiting in front of her Gundam.

"Come on!" She waved everybody on, hopping from one foot to the other nervously, though she stepped lightly on the sprained one. Wufei didn't take the time to talk and instead made his way to _Shen-Long_.

"Why didn't you take to the air?" Heero asked Cheyenne.

Cheyenne stared, surprised he didn't realize why. "Because you're coming with me," she replied finally.

"What?"

"If I'm going up against Delia Stead, then I want you in the cockpit with me. You're the best right? So c'mon!" Cheyenne climbed up _Blizzard-Cry_ and started the Gundam up. Heero shook his head, amazed again at how well these girls had been trained, and then began to follow her up _Blizzard-Cry_ until Kaila's call stopped him.

"HEY! What are _we_ supposed to do?" she cried, gesturing to herself and Yumi.

"Take cover."

**(*)**

Cheyenne clutched the throttle, a little nervous about having Heero stand beside her, watching her every move.

Heero noticed and closed his eyes. "Calm down. You've got it. If you get jittery then you're just gonna screw up again."

Cheyenne took a deep breath and nodded.

Suddenly Wufei's emotionless face came up on the screen. "Hey, you two all right in there?"

Cheyenne grinned and tapped the screen with a finger. "Of course, Wu-Wu."

"Good," he nodded and signed off.

"He truly cares for you."

"I know, now," Cheyenne smiled at the thought of it, then narrowed her eyes. "Okay, time for battle." She threw all else but the fight out of her mind.

Quatre's face came up on the screen. "All right, here we go again. Cheyenne, I want you to stay back for this one. If Delia shows up, she is most definitely going to come straight for you. Save your resources for her and leave the rest to us," he told her and Cheyenne nodded. "Trowa, you and I will take the first wave. Duo, you and Wufei handle the second one."

"Understood," came the voices from the other three pilots.** (Immediately the song _White Reflection_ came on.)**

"YEE-HAH!" Duo's voice suddenly exploded over the radio. "If they want a fight, they've got it! Right, Cuz?"

"Always, Cuz," she laughed, more comfortable this time around although her hands were still tight on the throttle. She watched Quatre and Trowa break formation to fight with the first wave of Delia's so-called Elite. Quatre flew up and around one of them so fast that the Shadow Walker lost track of him. Then _Sand-Rock_ came up behind the enemy and sliced them in half with his scythes. They watched as that pilot ejected. Then it was Trowa's turn and _Heavy-Arms_ tore into them with its numerous guns.

Behind her, Cheyenne saw Wufei's _Shen-Long_ and Duo's _Death-Scythe _head into battle with the second wave coming from the opposite direction. _Shen-Long_ eradicated several with its long whip and _Death-Scythe_ pulled out the scythe it was named for. They flew off past her line of sight in no time. She turned and watched as Quatre and Trowa flew off as well, fighting the last of their group.

After a few minutes, her eyes narrowed in realization. "Hey, the Elite led them away for a reason, didn't they?"

Heero nodded. "Yes, expect Delia Stead at any time."

"Roger."

The two sat in silence for awhile. _Blizzard-Cry_ just hung in the sky, waiting for its enemy to announce itself. All Cheyenne could hear was her own heartbeat as she clenched and unclenched the throttle tightly in her hands. She breathed heavily as she waited. '_Breathe in…breathe out…breathe in…breathe out…' _

"Behind you," Heero said. Cheyenne turned _Blizzard-Cry_ around and spotted an impressive looking Gundam, clone to her own except in a different color scheme.

"You die here," Delia's voice hissed over the radio waves. Cheyenne grimaced, as did Heero.

"Here we go..." she murmured.

"Phase Five begins. Mission…accepted."

**(*)**

"Well, _now_ what do we do?" Kaila rushed through the burning woods with a silent moody Yumi. When Yumi didn't answer, Kaila rolled her eyes and turned to her. "Look, Yumi, why don't you just-huh?" She looked in front of her in surprise. "The woods just gave way to a freeway...?"

A bright red Ferrari came out of nowhere and screeched to a halt in front of them.

Kaila whistled softly at the sight of the expensive car. "Now that's a beauty."

The engine purred as the passenger side window lowered. "Get in," the driver told them.

"Yeah right. Do we LOOK like street corner-" Kaila was abruptly cut off when Yumi opened the passenger side door and motioned for Kaila to get in the back seat. "Huh? Yumi, what's going on?"

"I know him!" Yumi said excitedly. She'd immediately recognized the voice and saw the glimmer of blonde hair resting in the seat.

Kaila leant down to study the driver and then her eyebrow rose. "_This_ fine specimen is what you've been so moody about? Well, shoot, I understand completely now! Forget Quatre…and Duo!"

"Kaila!" Yumi blushed and pushed Kaila into the backseat. Then she straightened, ran a hand through her hair, pulled on her skintight leather one-piece outfit and sat down in the front, crossing her legs and closing the door as Zechs floored it. Soon they were cruising down the highway.

**(*)**

Kaila shook her head, confused, as she, Yumi and Zechs sat at an outdoor café and enjoyed a breakfast of croissants and tea. **(Zechs' theme song, _Faraway Dawn_, drifted in the background.)**

Zechs vaguely found himself admiring their leather outfits and wondered how the Gundam team resisted the girls. Even the fiery one he had met before was clad in a pilot's suit that she'd somehow made to look sexy. He tuned in Kaila as she spoke.

"I don't get it. How can these people just sit around and eat like nothing's going on?" She motioned to the people around her, starting to get angry. "Cheyenne and the guys are up there putting their lives on the line and these people don't even care!"

"Not to mention that we just blew up a building yesterday. How in the world-"

Zechs cut them off, chuckling. "My dears, let me give you an analogy." He set his teacup on the table and flicked his hair over a shoulder. _Flick, sparkle, sparkle._ "Let's say that you're on Earth, perhaps in North America or Asia, and somewhere in Antarctica there's a huge war going on. Buildings are blown up, soldiers are dying and terrorists are being overthrown, but does any of that have anything to do with you? When you watch it on your TV in a cozy home millions of miles away, are you going to duck for cover?"

Kaila frowned. "Well...no, but-"

Zechs nodded slowly. _Flash, glitter, glitter._ "Exactly. You have to stop thinking of Colony Twelve as just some small town. Think of it as its own large planet, although it's not quite that huge, more like a very large continent. What happens way on the other side of this continent does not affect the people _here_, and what doesn't affect the people here is then of no concern to the people here."

"But-" Yumi tried to interrupt, but Zechs waved a hand in the air.

"The only reason this seems so important to you is because you are now on the inside of things. You are the military so to speak. The FBI. You _know_ now."

The girls were silent for a moment, stirring their tea in thought.

"And you?" Kaila asked. "Just what is _your_ connection to us?"

"Me? I had run-ins with the Gundam team from the past," he shrugged. _Sparkle, sparkle._

Kaila knew she wasn't going to get anything else out of him so she contented herself with just staring at him. '_Geez, ten minutes. That's all I need. Just ten minutes alone and I will rock his…'_

"Kaila?"

"Huh? What?" Kaila asked guiltily, coming out of her thoughts.

Zechs smiled at her. "You're looking at me as if you want to ask me something, Lovely One?" he prompted.

Kaila's cheeks felt hot. '_C'mon brain, back me up, back me up,' _she pleaded. "Well, do the Colonies know about us, then? About Earth? Because none of us know about them." '_G__ood job, brain. Good one,'_ she congratulated herself.

Zechs leant back in his seat in thought. _Shine, shimmer, shimmer._ "Hmmm. Well, any information on the Colonies has indeed been erased from the records of Earth. Space research has been all but forbidden except for exploration of other planets. So you're right, the Earth is completely ignorant of the Colonies now. As for the Colonies themselves, they know of Earth, sure, but they think of it as a primitive planet not as advanced as they are, which may be true. And journeys to Earth are forbidden except to special parties."

"Wild," Yumi shook her head.

"But why is contact between Earth and the Colonies forbidden?" Kaila asked.

Zechs shook his head. _Flick, swish, glitter._ "Wars. Wars between the two are...bound to happen."

Kaila got the feeling that he was hiding something, but before she could pry Yumi cleared her throat.

"Kaye-chan…isn't there something over there you'd like to get?" she asked, motioning towards the buffet table with her head.

Kaila narrowed her eyes at her friend. '_What a time to want to be alone.' _ "Yeah, sure. Those eggs sure look good," she muttered lamely as she got up.

Zechs watched her go and turned to Yumi with eyebrows raised. "Question for me, Beauty?" he asked with a small smile.

"Yeah…" Yumi sighed and began to play with her teacup. "Well, there's this guy. Like, he's really sweet and everything. His name is Quatre, maybe you know him? And he, I-I mean, he may like me and all that, but, well, I'd much rather be with you!" She just came out and said it, but blushed, aware that she sounded like a little girl.

Zechs eyed her for a minute, then reached out and took her hand. "Yumi...I'm flattered, really, but you don't really want to be with me. You hardly know me. And I know Quatre Winner, he's a great guy. Let me tell you a little about him..."

As Zechs went into a long story of Quatre's history, Yumi's eyes grew larger and larger. She had no idea the amount of sacrifices that Quatre had made and how he'd managed to keep a smiling face, an innocent nature and a hope for peace through it all. She wiped a tear from her eye when Zechs was done.

He smiled. "Now do you see? There's a lot you didn't know about him and that he'll never tell you."

"But...but now I _know_ I don't deserve him," Yumi wailed. "On top of all of those things, he's a prince, too! I'm just some punk girl from Tokyo. I mean…I feel so inadequate next to him."

"No," Zechs shook his head causing the inevitable _swish, sparkle, sparkle_ to happen. "Yumi, he needs someone like you, someone to give him a little spunk every once in a while. That's why he was drawn to you."

She appeared to mull over his words, remembering Trowa telling her similar things. "Maybe…"

Zechs squeezed her hand comfortingly. He hoped she picked Quatre. The last thing he needed was another Noin following him around...

"GET DOWN!" Kaila's voice screamed suddenly.

Zechs hurriedly reached up and grabbed Yumi, throwing them to the ground in a sea of blonde hair. _FLICK SPARKLE WHOOSH_.

People screamed and knocked over tables, racing to get out of the café as several armed guards poured in, searching for anything Gundam-related. They found their targets wearing leather and began to shoot.

Kaila grabbed her machine gun and back-flipped until she was behind the table with Zechs and Yumi. "People don't know "what's goin' on", eh? It doesn't matter if it's across "the continent", hm?" she mimicked Zechs with gritted teeth.

"How was I supposed to know they'd follow you?" he snapped back. "Quickly," he added, pulling out a grenade bomb. "I'll hold them off. You two get out of here!"

"Right!" Kaila hopped up and waved a guy down who was passing by on a motorcycle. "I need this! Thanks!" She shoved him off and hopped on.

"Hey! That's not mine, it's my grandmother's!" the guy whined.

Yumi was slower getting up. "Zechs…?"

"I'll be fine!" He waved her on. "Trust me."

Yumi nodded and jumped onto the bike behind Kaila. "Let's go Kaye-chan!" She pulled out her sniper rifle to cover their backs as Kaila sped off on the highway. Behind them the café blew up in flames.

"_Zechs_!" Yumi cried as Kaila burned rubber.


	16. Chapter 16 Not Over Yet

**16) Not Over Yet**

_Blizzard-Cry_ trembled from another round of gunfire from _Desert-Howl_ and, at yet another fierce blast, Cheyenne slumped over her controls wearily.

"I don't know how much more of this I can take," she grunted as blood dripped from a cut on her lip and a bruise formed on her head. It seemed that the more damage _Blizzard-Cry_ took, the more she took herself.

Heero narrowed his eyes. "Roll and duck!" he ordered.

Cheyenne hurriedly sat up and did as she was told. _Blizzard-Cry_ rolled and ducked, unsheathing one of its swords out and lunging forward towards _Desert-Howl _as it came out of its roll. "NEEAAHHHHHH!" she roared, cutting deeply into _Desert-Howl_'s shoulder. The arm fell off the giant mobile suit and careened towards the ground, setting several more trees on fire in the burning forest below them.

"Good," Heero nodded.

Cheyenne slumped over once more, breathing heavily. "This...is so…taxing…" she whispered, feeling her strength ebb from her.

Heero stared. How many times had he thought that same thing flying _Wing-Zero_? But had he ever given up? No. "You can't give up hope, but if you do..."

Cheyenne turned to watch him punch a button. A switch suddenly appeared and _Blizzard-Cry_ began to flash red. "What's that?" she asked, feeling a twist of fear knot in her stomach.

"Detonation device. If all else fails-"

"Blow myself up? ARE YOU CRAZY? That's not an option! If I'm unsuccessful...then we have no future," she added dramatically. **(Thank you for that line over and over and over again, Cartoon Network, hehe)**

Heero shrugged, unimpressed. "Then destroy it." He motioned towards _Desert- Howl_, pushing the button again to make the switch disappear.

Cheyenne took a deep breath and narrowed her gray eyes. She reached up to flick a control switch and the throttle immediately divided into two separate sticks causing _Blizzard-Cry_ to draw the second sword and point it at _Desert-Howl_. She placed one hand over each throttle and grimaced. "Mission...accepted," she told Heero, who almost smiled as he crossed his arms.

**(*)**

Quatre, Trowa, Wufei and Duo watched the battle between _Desert-Howl_ and _Blizzard-Cry_ from afar. They had long since finished off Delia's so-called Elite since without Delia, they weren't much of anything. They watched _Blizzard-Cry_ take out its other sword and point at _Desert-Howl_, who did the same with its own remaining sword.

"Shouldn't we help?" Quatre asked in concern.

"Nah, this is one of those one-on-one battles that Heero always does," Duo said.

"Only that's Cheyenne flying," Wufei snapped. "She's not capable of defeating Delia Stead! She'll die!"

"No she won't. Have some faith, Wufei," Trowa told him.

Wufei slumped over his controls and shook his head, gritting his teeth. He wanted to join the fight but something was holding him back. "Then again...Delia's a woman, too..." he grunted finally.

Quatre noticed several blips on his radar suddenly. "Huh? What's this? My radar says that Kaila and Yumi are right below us...and going fast!"

"What?" Duo asked, checking it out for himself.

**(*)**

Yumi continued to shoot at the various motorcycle tires chasing her and Kaila. Suddenly Kaila's long blue-violet hair slapped Yumi in the face.

"Dang it, Kaye-chan! Tie that stuff back or something!" Yumi yelled irritably.

"Sorrry!" Kaila reached back and grabbed her hair with one hand and then stuffed it down her top. "There, better?"

"Much," Yumi grimaced, trying to keep her balance while sitting backwards on the motorcycle. "When'd you learn how to drive this thing anyway?"

"Uhhh, would you believe that Heero taught me?"

"No."

"Didn't think so..."

"KAILA! YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO DRIVE ONE OF THESE THINGS?"

"Just trust me, alright?" She used a car in front of them as a ramp and leapt over it and several other cars to land in front of them all. "You just watch our backs and let me drive, okay?"

"Okay, okay..." Yumi huffed, training her rifle on anyone else who approached them. She had to hold on when Kaila turned off the road and onto a forest path though.

"I'll try to lose 'em in here!" Kaila explained.

**(*)**

Cheyenne and Delia Stead were still going hard at it in the skies. Cheyenne now suffered from a black eye, several bleeding cuts and a deep gash in her right leg. Even Heero had fallen to his knees from the numerous hits _Blizzard-Cry_ had received. And yet still, for every hit that _Blizzard-Cry_ suffered it wasn't as if _Desert-Howl_ wasn't suffering as well. After all, _Desert-Howl_ only had one arm and leg left.

Cheyenne shook her head in despair, trying to understand how much longer Delia would hold out when her voice suddenly came over the radio.

"Why...why are you doing this?" Delia asked, sounding as if she was worse off then Cheyenne.

"I-I…" Cheyenne couldn't respond for at the moment she choked up blood and had to fling off her helmet so it wouldn't splatter all over it and block her vision. In her momentary weakness, Heero grabbed the radio and began to speak.

"Listen to me. I am Heero Yuy. I am a part of the Gundam team and we're here to stop you from doing any more damage to yourself and to Earth."

"The Earth..." Delia's voice uttered over the radio waves. "The Earth must be destroyed!" At that point _Desert-Howl_ opened fire on _Blizzard-Cry_ once more.

Cheyenne screamed as _Blizzard-Cry_ lost a lot of air and fell quite noticeably. When she gained control of her mobile suit again she glared daggers at _Desert-Howl_. "Die..." she hissed, wiping blood from her mouth.

Heero ignored her and continued to talk into the radio. "Delia! The Earth is not yours to destroy! Don't you understand that millions upon millions of innocent people live their lives there? Don't you realize all the struggles that the Colonies and Earth have gone through in order to keep the peace between each other? Don't ruin this with your petty squabbles!"

All during Heero's speech, Cheyenne bombarded Delia with numerous sword slashes from _Blizzard-Cry_. She paid no attention to Heero at all, but concentrated on her goal. '_Destroy Desert-Howl...destroy Desert-Howl...destroy-'_

"Cheyenne, back off a bit, give _Blizzard-Cry_ a break," Heero said. Cheyenne snarled and pulled back, giving Delia a break as well. It was then that Delia's voice came over the air again.

"What has the Earth ever done for us, the Colonies? The people on Earth deserve to die!"

"For what?" Heero asked. "What wrong have the people on Earth ever done to you? No one's done anything to anyone, all of that is over now!"

"T-They…" Delia came at Cheyenne with more force than ever before. "THE EARTH HAS CAUSED ME MORE PAIN THAN I CAN BEAR!" she screamed, hitting _Blizzard-Cry_ over and over again with _Desert-Howl_'s one sword.

Cheyenne gritted her teeth at the sudden attack. "Heero...if you think this little speech of yours is helping..."

Heero shook his head. "Just give me a little more time, Cheyenne..."

**(*)**

Kaila and Yumi were back to back, surrounded by about twenty guards of Colony Twelve. The motorcycle lay at their side in flames, having been shot down a while back. Kaila and Yumi had managed to hold off the guards thus far with their fighting skills and their rifles, but time was running out and bullets were running low.

"Looks like this is it," Yumi threw her gun down and put her fists up.

Kaila nodded grimly. "You were a good friend, Yumi."

"Right back at you, Kaye-chan."

Kaila nodded and let out a fierce Xena-sounding war cry. "AIEIEIEIEIEIEIEIE!" With that she opened fire and began to laugh maniacally as she let out the last round of her machine gun. When the smoke cleared all of the guards were lying on the ground, hurt and unconscious.

"You did it!" Yumi squealed, hugging Kaila and jumping up and down.

"Not without a little help..."

They turned to see Trowa appear from behind a tree. Kaila and Yumi's eyes widened in surprise and they hugged him, jumping up and down.

"Hey, he wasn't alone, you know?" Duo snorted, frowning a bit at the sight of Trowa surrounded by screaming girls, especially a screaming leather-clad Kaila. Yumi and Kaila ran to Duo and hugged him as well and when Quatre appeared they did the same. However when Wufei appeared, he held up a hand in disgust.

"Spare me, will ya?" he asked. The two got control of themselves.

"Where'd you come from?" Yumi asked.

"How's Cheyenne?" Kaila asked eagerly. The guys shook their heads.

"Only Heero can say..." Trowa told them enigmatically and they all looked up in the sky as one.

**(*)**

"HOW MUCH MORE TIME DO YOU NEED?" Cheyenne yelled, suffering from even more bruises, including hitting her helmet-less head against the console and wavering in and out of consciousness. Heero noticed that she was taking as much damage as her mobile suit and was surprised that she and _Blizzard-Cry_ were so connected. He shook his head and talked into the radio once more as Cheyenne got herself into a fierce grappling match with _Desert-Howl_.

"Let it out, Delia! Let out your pain!" Heero urged. "What is it? What could have hurt you so?"

Cheyenne cut her eyes at him. "Are you sure you're on my side?" she asked. Heero hushed her, waiting for a response from Delia. Eventually, Cheyenne grew tired of waiting and threw _Desert-Howl_ away from her. "WELL, DELIA? What is it? What's the real problem, ya psycho?" she yelled, following Heero's lead.

_Desert-Howl_, terribly battered, hung in the air for a few minutes. Eventually, Delia's battered voice whispered over the radio waves: "My father...was from Earth...and he beat me…terribly..." With that, _Desert-Howl_ fell from the sky and Cheyenne watched it fall in surprise.

"Catch her," Heero told her softly. She quickly responded, turning her thrusters on and catching the falling mobile suit. Once she landed gently on the ground, she laid _Desert-Howl_ down. Heero quickly hopped out of _Blizzard-Cry_ and ran over to _Desert- Howl_, taking Delia out of her cockpit. The leader of the Shadow Walkers clung crying and shivering to him, completely beaten. Cheyenne watched them from above until Heero turned to her.

"Destroy this mobile suit," he told her, picking Delia up and carrying her away from _Desert-Howl_. Cheyenne nodded, sheathed her swords and picked up the mobile suit in _Blizzard-Cry_'s arms. She abruptly flung it high in the air and turned her guns on it. The mobile suit burst into flame and was no more.

"Mission accomplished," Heero said, watching the explosion with a sigh. "Relena..."

"What?" Cheyenne raised an eyebrow and turning towards him. '_Did he just say Relena?'_

"Mission…accomplished," Heero repeated as if she was slow.

Cheyenne took a breath but it came to her painfully. "You really gotta stop...doing that, Heero."

"Doing what?"

**(*)**

The group reunited in the clearing where _Blizzard-Cry_ had landed.

When Wufei appeared, he was greeted by a battered looking Cheyenne. "You look terrible," he told her. She smiled, wanting to answer, but collapsed to the ground instead.

"Cheyenne!" Kaila began to run over to her but Wufei held up a hand to block her way. "Oh no he didn't," she muttered, urging the Chinese boy on. "If you're goin' to her, then hurry up!" she snapped.

Wufei frowned and walked quickly **(you'd think he'd run? Yeah right)** over to Cheyenne, pulling her into a tight bear-hug.

Cheyenne found comfort in his arms. "Wufei," she breathed. "This has got to be one of the best days of my life!"

"Because of me...?"

She chuckled and cuddled closer. "You wish. Because I...won..." She lost her breath then and couldn't say any more. Wufei smiled down at her thinking that she was more like him then he thought...

Yumi and the rest gathered around Relena who'd arrived in a giant pink helicopter. Her bodyguards began carting Delia and her flunkies off to jail in another helicopter near her.

"What's gonna happen to her, Relinee?" Yumi wanted to know. Relena only smiled grimly.

"She'll get the help she needs," Heero replied.

Relena looked at him. "Heero..."

"Relena..."

"Oh Heero…"

"Relena…"

"Bleah," Duo snorted and placed an arm around Kaila. "The good news is that we won! It's over!"

"Our battle is finished!" Kaila added.

"Life is good!" Yumi cheered.

"Chalk up another win for the Gundam team," Trowa told them.

"Perfect!" Relena grinned.

"Complete," Heero added.

"Yes!" Quatre began. "And it's all for our wonderful Earth! The Earth is indeed a beautiful place! Without the Earth we wouldn't be able to live and thrive or even breathe. And until we have complete peace, we will continue to fight until that peace is won! We must never give up hope!" Quatre thrust a fist into the air. "Who's with me?" The group blinked at his outburst, making him blush and put his hand back down.

"Um...we were going for one-liners, Quatre," Kaila told him.

"Let's do it again, love," Yumi laughed.

Duo sighed heavily and cleared his throat. "It's over!" he said again.

"Our battle is finished!" Kaila added.

"Life is good!" Yumi cheered.

"Chalk up another win for the Gundam team," Trowa told them.

"Perfect!" Relena grinned.

"Complete," Heero added.

"Um, yay…" Quatre finished lamely, twirling a finger in the air.

Yumi giggled and tousled his hair fondly. "There ya go!" She hugged him tight. Quatre beamed and the team laughed. **(Everyone except Heero, of course.)**

"Let's get outta here," Relena said, motioning to the stealth jet that had brought them there in the beginning. It was now parked near them.

Trowa nodded but motioned over his shoulder at Cheyenne and Wufei. "Yes, but give them a moment."

Kaila noticed his tone and laid an arm around his shoulder and then Duo's. Trowa had been through a lot, she knew, but then again, they all had. "Let's go home," she told the group with a smile.

**(*)**

After Cheyenne pulled back from Wufei's hug, he smiled. "I really didn't think you'd make it out of this one."

Cheyenne shook her head. "Please, Wufei. I'm sure there's gonna be plenty of fights worse than this one. You gotta learn to trust me."

Wufei sighed, remembering his late wife saying something similar the day she died. "I will try, Kehui..." he sighed again.

Cheyenne raised an eyebrow and then glared at him. "Now hold up! First Nataku and now KEHUI? Geez, do you have women coming out of your ears?" she screeched. "Who was this one, huh? Your late girlfriend? Your fiancée? Huh? _HUH?"_

He actually found himself chuckling. She was beginning to act a bit too much like...well...him. "Kehui. Wu Kehui. I just gave you a Chinese name, that's all," he explained. "'_Ke'_ means '_science'_, more or less. And '_Hui' is_ for '_bright'_ and '_intelligent'_," he smiled and caressed her cheek. "And 'Wu'…well, that's just because you like saying my name so much."

Cheyenne continued to glare at him until it sunk in that "Kehui" was _her_. "Oh...OH!" She grinned and flung her arms around him. Wufei rolled his eyes but expected her response as he was slowly getting used to her impulsive personality. "You gave me a Chinese name!" she squealed. "Does that mean I can give you an American name? How about Will? Can I call you Will?"

"NO!" He made a face. "Er...just stick with Wu-Wu, okay?"

"Aw, okay."

"Now c'mon, we've gotta get you back to the jet." He led her back towards the stealth fighter with one arm around her waist and the other holding her arm around his shoulder. "Geez, you really do look bad."

"You know, I'm starting to feel insulted," she snapped as she limped along with him.

He shrugged. "Well, really, have you looked in a mirror lately?"

"Wufei-"

"Looks like you've been through the grinder and back."

"I get the point."

"It doesn't look like you've _ever_ had a good day."

"_Okay_."

"Not to mention you smell like-"

"WUFEI!"


	17. Chapter 17 Wrapping Up

**17) Wrapping Up**

**(Epilogue)**

About a month later, Relena threw a huge ball for the eight members of the Gundam team and the entire university was invited. Relena covered it all up, making it seem as though the ball was in their honor because they'd all made the Ultra Special Dean's List, when in all reality it was a congratulatory ball for them.

Cheyenne and Yumi sat in the Mercury Hall lounge, dressed to kill. Cheyenne's sunset-colored hair was up in a bun with curls falling down on either side of her temples. She wore a crimson-colored Chinese style dress and even carried a fan. Yumi wore a long gold, sleeveless gown with black straps and a gold choker, complete with white gloves. She had crimped her hair into waves for the occasion and the only "punk" thing about her was her fishnet stockings.

Cheyenne grinned at her. "You look good."

"No, girl, you look good," Yumi laughed, patting down Cheyenne's dress. Cheyenne giggled while Ms. Batty frowned at them.

"Don't stay out too late," she warned.

"Of course not, Ms. Batty," Yumi and Cheyenne answered innocently.

"Hmph, I wouldn't even approve of this tacky little event had it not been because you two made such good grades. Otherwise I wouldn't allow you to be wearing make-up, yes, I see it, Miss Yamashita," Ms. Batty told Yumi, waving a finger.

Yumi rolled her eyes but then jumped up at the knock on the door. "That must be my Quatty!" She ran to door and flung it open.

Quatre and Wufei's eyes were wide at the sudden opening of the door and they each held corsages in their hands. Yumi giggled and jumped up and down at the sight of Quatre looking jazzy in his white tuxedo with the gold vest. Wufei was clad in fancy red and black Chinese attire.

"C'mon, Shy-chan! It's them!" Yumi grinned.

Quatre smiled and pinned his corsage on her. "You look gorgeous, Yumi."

"Thanks Quatty," she purred.

Wufei turned and his eyes widened slightly (so slight that one wouldn't be able to tell) at the sight of Cheyenne in the Chinese dress.

She smiled and got up a bit slower, taking her time to head over to the two young men. "You better appreciate this, Wufei, 'cause you don't want to know how hard it was to squeeze into this thing," she murmured into his ear as he pinned his corsage on.

He half-smiled and held out his arm. "I appreciate it, Kehui. You look…um-"

"Stunning?" Quatre whispered loudly to help his friend out.

Wufei narrowed his eyes at him. "When I need your help, Mr. Thesaurus, I'll ask for it," he snapped and turned back to Cheyenne. "You look…er…stunning."

The girls giggled and allowed the guys to lead them to Relena's pink limo that had come around to pick them all up. When they got inside, they squealed at Kaila whose hair was up in a ponytail full of soft flowing curls. She wore a pretty silk black backless gown with thin straps and silver roses embroidered in it. She squealed as well and hugged her friends, careful not to mess up each other's corsages.

Wufei snorted and took his seat next to Trowa, Quatre and Duo, opposite the girls. "Women. Always squealing about strange things," he commented.

Duo agreed as he patted down his black tux. "No kidding. You shoulda seen Kaila's House Manager, Bunny," he shuddered. "She and Kaila droned on and on for at least ten minutes."

"At least you weren't dragged along to go shopping for the dress," Trowa told him, straightening the tie that went with his blue pin-striped suit.

"True…"

"You too?" Quatre asked, shaking his head. "I thought it was kinda fun actually."

"For the first hour, maybe," Trowa placed his hands behind his head. "Oh well, the faster we get to this shindig, the better I like it."

Wufei nodded but then raised an eyebrow as an afterthought. "Waitasec, whose dress did _you_ go shopping for?"

Kaila rolled her eyes and squeezed her way in-between Duo and Quatre before a fight could start. "'Scuze me, I was here first." She laid her head on Duo's shoulder who grinned ear to ear when she did so. Quatre moved across the limo to sit next to Yumi while Cheyenne sat in-between Trowa and Wufei.

"You know..." Cheyenne held Wufei's hand in her lap. "This sorta reminds me of our movie trip."

The whole group groaned.

"PLEASE don't remind of us that!" Kaila moaned.

Cheyenne giggled. "'Member how you and me fought back to back, Quatre?"

Quatre nodded and laughed. "I remember Trowa breaking out into hives too!"

"I remember Duo getting hit by an apple," Trowa chuckled.

"An _apple_?" Yumi guffawed. "Now that's pain."

"No kiddin', I _still_ have a bump on my head from that." Duo rubbed his head at the memory.

"And Heero's gun, geez..." Kaila added.

"I told you we'd all laugh about that one day," Cheyenne grinned.

Duo shook his head. "Man, I could tell you three some wild stories from _before_ you joined us! Whew!"

"Like Wufei, Mariemaia, and the boy scout uniform?" Trowa murmured. Wufei glared at him as Cheyenne laughed.

"_Boy scout_?" she giggled.

"Or Trowa and his clown suit?" Wufei snapped.

Kaila clapped a hand over her mouth. "Trowa, you're a _clown_?"

"Hey what about the time Blondie here went crazy?" Duo added, leaning forward and tapping Quatre's head with a finger. "'Member how you destroyed a whole-"

"Hey, I'm still sensitive about that, Duo!"

"Crazy? My Quatty?" Yumi asked in disbelief.

Quatre blushed. "Well...well, we could always talk about Duo's on-again, off-again relationship with-"

"SHUT UP!" Duo smacked him.

Quatre grabbed his head. "Ow! It's just Hilde, Duo."

"That girl _again?"_ Kaila snapped. "What _is_ it with her, Duo?"

"She's probably just a random fan, Kaye," Cheyenne explained.

"As if," Kaila huffed. "Quatre's probably making it up anyway."

"What!" Yumi squealed. "My Quatre wouldn't do that!"

"Sure he would," Kaila nodded sagely. "His innocent face doesn't fool me! He's about as evil as Wufei!"

"Hey!" Cheyenne frowned.

Quatre waved his hands in front of his face. "Wait! I'm sorry, we shouldn't be fighting at all!"

Kaila glared at him. "Yeah, right, Quatre. You _know_ you're really thinking "mud fight, mud fight"!"

"Wha…uh…" Quatre stuttered.

The group blinked at Kaila and then broke into laughter at Quatre's blush. They laughed on in memories as the limo drove them towards Earth Hall.

**(*)**

Duo tapped his foot impatiently as the boring band played some boring song. Finally, having the last straw, he grabbed Kaila's hand and grinned. "C'mon, let's get this party started right!"

Kaila laughed and nodded, following him up to the stage where Duo grabbed the mic from the guy who'd been singing and tapped it a few times.

"Attention, excuse me attention! Ahem, ahem!" he called out, causing the mic to make a few screeching sounds. When all attention was on him, Duo grinned and yelled into the mic: "Everybody...rock your body...everybody...rock your body right...Duo's back ALLRIGHT!" He and Kaila immediately began dancing and singing and the band picked up on the Backstreet Boy's song and began to play it as Duo and Kaila made up verse after verse. They were soon joined by Quatre and Yumi and ended up doing what looked like a choreographed dance routine.

"Wow," Wufei shook his head. "I hate to see what's going to happen at the karaoke lounge in the arcade now."

Cheyenne laughed. "I bet it'll be a lot of fun!"

"Humph."

Across the ballroom, Heero pulled Relena aside. "Relena, I have something to ask you," he whispered in her ear.

Relena felt her heart beating fast. "Yes...?" she asked amidst the partying noise.

"Will you...reactivate _Wing Zero_?" he told her seriously. "I want to fly again."

Relena sighed and nodded. It wasn't what she wanted, but it was close enough. "Of course, Heero."

After Quatre, Kaila, Yumi and Duo were done on the stage, they bowed and leapt off of it, allowing the band to pump up the party with the _Rhythm Generation_ song. Quatre once again took the initiative to show off his skills on the dance floor.

Yumi watched him and grinned. "See him? That's my man," she told a passing girl who nodded in admiration. Even though Yumi had pretty much reattached herself to Quatre, she still couldn't get the nagging thought of Zechs out of her mind. She wondered just what had become of sexy blonde man.

"Good job, you three."

Yumi turned and saw Cheyenne and Kaila standing with Miss Une. The three girls grinned at each other.

"We couldn't have done it without teamwork," Kaila said.

"Heck yeah, you guys are the greatest!" Cheyenne agreed.

Yumi nodded. "Hey, Miss Une...? How's your husband?"

Cheyenne and Kaila looked at her, confused.

Miss Une raised both eyebrows and then smiled. "Treizster is doing just fine, Miss Yamashita, just fine." She and Yumi shared a private laugh.

"Enjoying yourselves?"

The girls turned to see none other than Zechs in all his glittering glory with Noin on his arm. He smiled at their open-mouthed expressions. "Keep up the good work, Lovely One, Fiery One and Beauty." He said and then with a wink, _flick, swish, sparkle, sparkle_, he was gone. The three girls gathered into their circle and squealed.

"Complete hottie alert!" Cheyenne giggled.

"SO CUTE!" Kaila agreed.

"EEEEE!" Yumi added.

Relena walked up to them, then. "I'm not going to ask," she chuckled and crossed her arms. "All I know is that I'm really glad I chose you three. You really came through for us."

"Aw, no problem, Retina," Kaila replied.

Cheyenne nudged her. "C'mon, Kaila, stop fooling around. Her name is Relisa."

"No, it's Reshina," Yumi told them, rolling her eyes.

"I always thought it was Relia," another girl, Catherine, asked as she passed by. The four girls got into a small argument and Relena only shook her head and smiled.

'_At least I THINK I'm glad I picked these three...' _

Heero watched them from his place against the wall absently thinking that there was something about her he hadn't noticed before. She was actually smart, cunning, a great person to rely on and, well, beautiful. "Kaila..." he whispered softly so that no one could hear, but then frowned. "What the heck did I just say?"

Kaila turned her head and smiled at him, then grinned and leant towards Relena. "Hey, you'd better go to Heero. He's been saying your name like 24-7 the whole mission. I really think he missed ya."

"REALLY? Thanks, Kaina." Relena's face brightened as she walked over to him.

"Kai_n__a_?" Kaila narrowed her eyebrows.

Abruptly a slow song came on (probably _Last Impression_) and Yumi walked forward to lay her head on Quatre's shoulder. She was glad to know that Zechs had survived and that he was happy with whatever his goal was. '_Waitaminit, j__ust what the heck was he doing here anyway?'_ She looked around for him, but he was gone.

Quatre was just glad that Yumi had gotten over her sudden moodiness...maybe he would officially ask her out soon...

Kaila, gazed into Duo's eyes, satisfied that the ordeal was over, but she found herself anticipating the next battle. Duo gazed back, grateful that no one had tried to challenge him for Kaila today. He was getting tired of it. Maybe they were getting the picture.

Cheyenne hugged Wufei close, pleased to have proven herself to everyone and elated to be his "Kehui." Wufei was grateful to have finally found peace within himself in order to start over and love again…and to have Nataku shined, cleaned and waxed.

Relena laid her head on Heero's shoulder and wished he would ask her something...well...a little more profound one day, while Heero curiously watched Kaila's back with silent marine-blue eyes.

Trowa was happy enough with his life, He realized that perhaps he was destined to be alone but then he remembered that he wasn't totally alone; friends surrounded him, didn't they? Especially certain red-head friends that would come crying on his shoulder when they needed help with certain Asian boyfriends. And of course there were other fish in the sea, right? Being single always had its benefits.

And Hilde, dancing with Trowa, silently laughed. Surprisingly enough, she was the other spy that Kaila hadn't had time to find that day in Colony Twelve. "The Shadow Walkers will live on, Gundam pilots...just you wait," she hissed.

"Hmn?" Trowa asked the blue-haired girl.

"Oh nothing..." she grinned, placing her head back on his shoulder and narrowing her eyes. '_Gundam scum.'_ The ball lasted well into the night with no bothersome interruptions.

The Gundam Wing team had done it again...for now.

_Sayonara..._

The End

_Disclaimer: Duo, Heero, Quatre, Wufei, Trowa, Une, Zechs, Noin, Dorothy, Hilde and any other Gundam Wing characters named in this story are all trademarks of whoever (I think it's Sotsu Agency, Sunrise and TV Asahi) and are no way made up by the author's mind. However, Cheyenne, Kaila, Yumi, Treizster, Delia Stead and any other characters are indeed completely from the product of the author's mind so don't you steal 'em! You can draw pictures if you like though. Oh and none of these events are true, any resemblance to people living is false, blah blah blah. Hope you enjoyed the story!  
_


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